Martha’s Vineyard likely shattered monthly land sale records in September, as the recent boom in the Island real estate market spiked to a fever pitch, exceeding 2019 numbers in volume and value.

The Dukes County Register of Deeds real estate activity report from the month of September, which includes all land transactions above $10,000, showed a 206 per cent increase in the total value of all Island sales, which rose from about $61 million in September 2019 to $187 million in September 2020.

The total volume of transactions increased by 108 per cent, from 58 sales in September 2019 to 121 in 2020. And the average sale price increased by 47 per cent, from $1.05 million to $1.55 million.

Numbers on the amount of excise tax collected are also at record highs, register of deeds Paulo DeOliviera said, as well as mortgages and their average value. He said his office has rarely seen monthly volume increases in the 100 per cent range, and has never seen a 200 per cent increase in the total value of land sold.

“The numbers are just staggering, if you look at the total sales value,” Mr. DeOliviera said. “That is like mind-blowing numbers. And if you look at what we generated or brought in, the total deeds excise of $832,000, we’ve never reached that high.”

Deeds excise tax in Dukes County is collected at a rate of $4.56 for every $1,000 valuation. Ten per cent of the tax goes to the county, while the other 90 per cent goes to the state. The registry collected $2.1 million total in deeds excise tax in 2019. In 2020, it has already eclipsed $3 million.

Mr. DeOliviera said the September real estate numbers have somewhat normalized in the first half of October, but that the first nine months of 2020 have already far exceeded numbers for the entire 2019 calendar year by nearly every metric.

Overall sales volume increased 26 per cent this year, from 380 sales in 2019 to 479 during the first nine months of 2020, Mr. DeOliviera said in an email. The total value of sales have increased 45 per cent, from $455 million in 2019 to $659 million during the first nine months of 2020. And average sale price has increased as well, from $1.19 million in 2019 to $1.38 million in 2020.

Monthly land sale reports from the registry show that the majority of the 2020 real estate spike has occurred in the past three months. While January and February saw small increases in total sales volume and value from 2019 numbers, the market dipped in March, April and May, as transactions came to a halt with the onset of the pandemic. But by mid-summer, activity had picked up, with July and August reporting significant increases over 2019 land sale numbers.

None compared to the increases reported in September.

“We were just surprised by the numbers, the volume of documents and the price tag on all of those properties,” Mr. DeOliviera said, referencing the nearly $200 million in total land sales over the course of the month. “That’s the first time I’ve seen a number increase that dramatically.”

The reports from the registry corroborate evidence — both anecdotal and number-based — from Island real estate agents and listing services that the Vineyard has seen a boom in its already-strong real estate industry since the pandemic began.

Mr. DeOliveira speculated that previous monthly highs in sales value came after the $64 million sale of Herring Creek Farm in the early 2000s. He guessed previous highs in transaction volume would likely have been during the 2012 “fiscal cliff.”

According to the registry’s September report, about half the Island’s 121 land sales in September were over $1 million. Only 12 transactions were under $500,000. Of those, at least two are apartments and three more were transactions under $20,000, signaling that only about five per cent of homes sold in the month were under $500,000.

The most expensive sale in September was $15.4 million for a property at 12 Guernsey Lane in Edgartown, which includes three buildings totaling 7,000 square feet on the Edgartown Harbor, as well as a pool, jacuzzi and harbor frontage.

But compared to Nantucket, the Vineyard’s real estate market remains approachable. According to data reported in the Inquirer and Mirror newspaper, Nantucket surpassed $1 billion in total land sales since the beginning of 2019, about $300 million more than the Vineyard with about 100 fewer transactions.

Nantucket’s average property sale price in 2020, according to the Inquirer and Mirror, was $2.9 million.