After erratic jumps in the post-Covid years, the Vineyard’s real estate market is at a strong and rising simmer.
Island realtors and experts on the market say that 2025 saw the market settle into a stable pattern of growth for the first time since the pandemic, and the trend is expected to continue into 2026.
Following a dip in the number of sales in 2024, last year brought steeper prices and an inventory outpaced by demand. That sent the market on the rise, resulting in a strong year for agencies, but a tougher market to break into for some homebuyers.
According to LINK, a real estate database serving Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Boston, the market has appreciated to an all-time high.
The average selling price of a single-family home in 2025 was $2.6 million, and the median selling price — a better overall indicator of what buyers are paying — was nearly $1.7 million. The median price of a home increased by about 5 per cent since 2024, and more than 30 per cent since 2021.
“2025 saw continued appreciation and substantial demand for Island living,” LINK founder and president Debra Blair told the Gazette.
She noted that the Vineyard’s rising average and median sale prices reflect what’s happening on Nantucket, in Boston and elsewhere in the country. But she also recognized Vineyard-specific trends driving the market.
During the pandemic, people came to the Island in droves seeking safety and a quality of life that the mainland didn’t provide, Ms. Blair said. This created an artificial “pandemic bubble” of unprecedented demand for properties that waned in years following.
Since technology continues to allow people to work remotely, many of those pandemic buyers have stayed on-Island, meaning real estate is scarcer than ever before.
“There’s just such little inventory, so when there is something available, it tends to go for a premium, and that just keeps prices on the rise,” she said.
Last year saw some historic big-ticket real estate sales on the Island. In July, Blue Heron Farm, the Chilmark estate that formerly hosted the Obamas, sold for $37 million. And in November, a 15,000-square-foot mansion on Katama Bay sold for $37.5 million, making it the highest single residential sale ever on the Vineyard.
Ms. Blair said these sales do not significantly skew Island-wide data. Instead, the surging market is largely driven by second home buyers, resulting in an increasingly homogenous buyer pool that includes fewer and fewer year-rounders.
“[The market] is more and more challenging for year-round residents and first-time homebuyers,” Ms. Blair said.
Data from the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank confirms that the Vineyard real estate market is on the rise.
The Land Bank collects a transfer fee for every real estate transaction that takes place between an independent buyer and seller. The Land Bank records the details of these transactions, making it a “reasonably sound barometer” of the Island real estate market, according to Land Bank executive director James Lengyel.
Since January 2025, Land Bank revenue has increased by 22 per cent while the number of transactions has decreased by 12 per cent. In other words, prices have gone up per transaction.
Mr. Lengyel said these numbers indicate 2025 was a year of strong, stable growth for the market after the tumultuous post-pandemic years, with more growth to come in 2026.
“The market did some lid rattling at the beginning of the decade, and then it eased off,” he said. “It’s now showing some evidence of starting to foam again.”
Pauline Donnelly, principal broker at real estate firm Donnelly + Co., said it was a successful year for the firm and that 2025 was the first year of sustainable growth since the pandemic. She explained that the main metrics realtors use to assess the strength of a market are sales volume and revenue.
“In general, I would say it was a year of stabilization,” Ms. Donnelly said. “Post-Covid, things were a little erratic, and this year, I think we really started to even out.”
She remarked on a slow start to the year at her firm, which she attributes in part to political uncertainty, and a strong fourth quarter. She also noted that she’s finally seeing buyers be more selective for the first time post-pandemic — another sign of a healthy market.
As for why 2025, in particular, was the comeback year, Ms. Donnelly said it’s impossible to say for sure.
“Sometimes there aren’t tangible reasons why a market shifts,” she said. “We can point to things like political unrest or interest rates rising or economical uncertainty. But the truth is, real estate is always cyclical.”
She’s optimistic for a strong 2026.
“The fact that we had such a strong fourth quarter really makes me feel very confident moving into 2026 we’re going to see more of the same,” she said.
Lisa Lucier, owner-broker at Anchor Realty, said her firm also had a successful year.
She echoed that the market is increasingly dominated by second-home buyers who don’t live on the Island year-round. Of all the houses her firm sold in 2025, she said only one or two went to year-round Islanders.
“It bums me out, because I’ve been doing [real estate] for 28 years here on the Island, and we don’t really see much of year-round people buying these houses still,” she said.
She sees real estate prices on the Island increasingly outpacing the actual value of the homes to which they’re attached. She noted that Vineyard homes go for far more than their assessed value simply because people are willing to buy them.
“There’s really nothing under a million dollars,” she said
Ms. Lucier finds the dichotomy of a market being strong for realtors and difficult to break into for first-time and middle-class homebuyers difficult to swallow.
She sees the market continuing to appreciate in 2026, but she fears that rising prices will further dwindle the year-round population, changing the fabric of the Island.
“I don’t know if it’s going to get fixed, because it might not be fixable,” she said. “But how long can this last, and who is it for? Who are these houses for? I think that’s the question we should be asking ourselves.”
This article appears in January 23, 2026.
Where is all the coverage about ADU’s? The “saving grace” that from what I can tell has fallen flat. Overheard a contractor on the ferry say “25% of homes on-island will build an ADU once rates fall” and I’m doubtful. $1.7M to enter market and another $500-750k to stick build a 900sqft ADU is insanity.
I know a many being built and even more moving through permitting. I’ve bid on a number of them. The question is will the refs be enforced
It’s a healthy economy and the island is amazing. Sale’s will continue. Billable rates for trades are through the roof and the wages aren’t. When employees are paid a living wage consistent with billable rates they will be buyers again.
We don’t need anymore growth. The traffic in January is ABSURD
This article leans heavily on realtor commentary, including Donnelly + Co., who, while on island but their company is heavily based off-Island and their local business is only a small slice of overall Vineyard activity. A more accurate barometer of the market would be Island attorneys who actually handle and record closings, they see what truly transacts, not just what’s listed or marketed. Realtor volume and pricing narratives can be misleading. Recorded legal documents and closing volume tell the real story. Without input from on-Island closing attorneys, claims of a “strong, stable” market feel incomplete at best.
The gazette publishes ‘actual’ real estate transactions. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary with the number of transactions