OVERPRICED REAL ESTATE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Before the economy took a tumble, homeowners used to check the weekly sales of nearby real estate rather than the Dow Jones averages to see how much their net worth had increased. It was a joyous experience for those who owned a home as well as the real estate agents who were reaping high sales commissions.

Then the economy faltered as well as the real value of real estate here on the Vineyard. Due to the distortionary government policies that mandated loans to marginal borrowers and required only low down payments, real estate prices went out of whack. Today, real estate salesmen should counsel present property sellers that they cannot expect to secure those over-weighted prices of yesterday.

Personally, I would love to purchase a home here in Edgartown, but the price of real estate here is still overpriced. So, like so many, we do not even glance at the real estate offerings as they are still unrealistic.

Looking over the real estate offerings at the lower end, we find a seller of a two-bedroom home at the end of a dirt road is seeking $750,000 for a sale to be completed. A building lot can be swept away for a mere $500,000. There are a multitude of foreclosures, but it is difficult to secure financing on a piece of property that you cannot fully inspect until after the sale. Most foreclosures require $10,000 down and the balance in 10 days. Try to find a local bank that will process your application for a home mortgage in less than 10 days.

So until local home sellers and the real estate people wise up and become more in tune with current values, house sellers are going to be stuck in trying to sell their homes. As an employed person with savings in the bank for a 25 per cent down payment, I can afford to wait a little longer for that ultimate purchase. On the other hand, can these homeowners who want to sell their homes have the same luxury of waiting another two years before the economy somewhat improves?

Michael Murphy

Edgatown

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OVERTIME FOLLY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce.

I thought it important and helpful to convey my thoughts regarding a recent experience that clearly is not pro Martha’s Vineyard business.

This past Saturday, my wife and I had an enjoyable breakfast and did some shopping on Main street, Vineyard Haven. We went into five or six shops and spent approximately $1,500. Our car was parked in the municipal lot in front of the police station. There were many open spots. When we returned to the car — 40 minutes beyond the two-hour limit — we were greeted with a $15 overtime parking violation. I was wondering if I should just move my car to one of the other vacant spaces, but was afraid I’d get another ticket — it was obvious that your parking inspectors were on top of their game. I was more than annoyed — I was outraged!

I can understand high season/summer concerns for making parking available to the public. But to be so rigid in the winter when there is plenty of easy parking for all, is nasty, and certainly in no one’s interest. I wasn’t taking a walk on the beach or visiting a friend in town — I was helping the downtown economy a lot more than the revenue received from a ridiculous $15 ticket.

In the future I will certainly not get another ticket. I will check my watch and be sure to stop shopping in time to get my car out of town — and let the shop owner know why I must leave.

I would suggest that in a down economy, in a period of time that all the merchants in town are trying to do a little more business at the end of the year, that you encourage a more lenient ticketing policy.

Bob Stein

Marblehead

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TOWER BLIGHT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Though we are living in one of the most conservation-regulated areas of the world, including a high-priced six-town-sponsored Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), I have yet to see any intelligent planning or foresight relative to wind towers. The current fad seems to be a “farm exemption,” yet some residents that live near these wind turbines are complaining of noise, including a former chairman of one of our town’s planning boards, who actually permitted one near his home.

Do we potentially want hundreds of these 15-story towers, making noise and blocking views, for gain only to a few owners? I would think that maybe a few strategically-placed, larger community-owned wind turbines would satisfy our energy conservation needs, or maybe we should support the Vineyard Power (vineyardpower.com) wind initiative, currently being designed off our shore, and not have any towers on our Island at all. This is a perfect opportunity for the MVC to lead the way and not hide behind their new 150-foot height regulation that will still allow hundreds of rusting steel towers to get built that the Island will be forced to host for 100 years. Though wind is an excellent source of clean energy, there are also many other alternative energy solutions that do not require tall towers or noisy turbines.

Paul Adler

West Tisbury

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DIRE WARNING

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

“Most of us just don’t get it” says the Friends Committee for National Legislation. “Don’t get what? That we have only a short time to take big initiatives to mitigate the coming impact of human-caused global warming.” According to the committee’s recent newsletter, “Virtually all people, every nation, and our entire biosphere face one looming existential threat: the future impact of human-caused global warming.

“Watching the cable or broadcast news, you’d think that the existential threat was from hard-working immigrants, a handful of al Qaeda extremists, from Wall Street, or from BP’s Gulf Oil spill.”

To that I add: if you follow local news, you’d think the greatest threat is untreated wastewater, inadequate libraries or wind turbines.

I encourage everyone, especially selectmen and members of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, to read the report and adjust their priorities. The report can be found at fcnl.org/now/pdf/2010/JulyAugust.pdf.

Chris Fried

Vineyard Haven