Million-dollar sales, mostly in Edgartown and Chilmark, are dominating the Island’s real estate market, as figures from the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank make abundantly clear.

Hard numbers illustrating the trend underscore urgent concerns about the lack of affordable housing, the subject of a standing-room-only forum last weekend.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and the evolution of million-dollar price tags from shocking rarities to barely remarked commonplaces has ratcheted up the cost of even the most basic shelter.

There is virtually no housing on the Vineyard for sale for less than $200,000, and that price tends to guarantee a fixer-upper that will make granny’s outhouse look like the Taj Mahal.

As of this week, land bank revenues for its fiscal year 2000, which doesn’t end until June 30, are already at $7,056,981 — almost $1 million more than the record-setting fiscal year 1999. With nearly two full months to go, the gap between the record numbers is certain to expand considerably.

And with real estate agents bemoaning the paucity of Island listings, it’s plain that soaring price tags are accounting for the eye-bulging totals.

Land bank revenues are two per cent of most arm’s-length property transactions, and a review of its fiscal year to date shows that there have been 58 Vineyard sales of $1 million or more, accounting for $3,377,203 in land bank revenues — almost half the total.

Those figures mean that since last June 30, $168,860,150 has changed hands for million dollar properties. Counting all properties, real estate sales were almost $353 million during that period.

Just last week, a house in Edgartown sold for $9.5 million. Purchased from Island architect-contractor Twanette Tharp by an unidentified man who acted through a real estate trust, the home is on Nantucket Sound at the end of a private road. Hillary L. Landers of Barbara B. Nevin Real Estate made the sale.

That was one of three sales of more than $5 million in Edgartown during this land bank fiscal year. The others were for $11,225,000 and $8.4 million. There were two of those megasales in West Tisbury — for $12 million and $10.4 million — and one in Chilmark, for $6 million.

The fiscal-year review underscores the concentration of high-ticket properties in Chilmark and Edgartown, which have had the bulk of million-dollar sales since last June 30.

The town-by-town breakdown of sales of $1 million or more, with number of transactions and total price of properties sold:

Chilmark — 24 sales for $59,282,650.
Edgartown — 20 sales for 69,010,000.
Tisbury — six sales for $8,942,500.
West Tisbury — four sales for $25,925,000.
Oak Bluffs — three sales for $3,860,000.
Aquinnah — one sale for $1,840,000.

For months now, real estate brokers have been clearly stating that they have buyers standing in line for waterfront properties, with bottomless checkbooks at the ready. At this point, it seems that the only cap on the soaring real estate market, aside from the national economy stubbing its toe rather spectacularly, is the lack of current owners who are willing to sell.