The number of homes sold on the Vineyard in 2024 dropped to the lowest point in over a decade, highlighting the effects of rising prices, high interest rates and a persisting hangover from the Covid real estate boom.
There were 275 single and multi-family homes sold on the Island last year, a 7 per cent dip from the year prior and the lowest annual tally since 2009. Realtors and market watchers point to the Island’s increasing median sales price — which reached a new peak of $1.6 million in 2024 — and low inventory as having contributed to the tight year.
“The drop in the number of sales is because there’s just no inventory,” said Deb Blair, the president and owner of LINK, the Island’s multiple listing service for real estate.
With the low number of sales in 2024, the total dollar volume dropped by 11 per cent compared to 2023 — the lowest total going back to 2018, when the median home sale was about $800,000 cheaper.
“It was sort of a challenging year,” said Natalie Conroy, the owner of Conroy & Co. Real Estate. “Not a lot of listings for sale.”
The Vineyard real estate market had been coming back down to reality since 2020, when the pandemic set the real estate world on fire and the Island had the highest number of home sales in recent memory. In the years since, the market has started to resettle, and realtors thought it was only natural for the current lag after the boom.
“I believe we are going back to the old normal,” said Julianna Flanders, the principal broker of Flanders Up-Island Real Estate. “We really did get skewed in the pandemic year, people were frantic and spent the money.”
The inventory in 2024 hit a low point of 145 properties at the start of the year, slightly better than the year prior, when the low point was 117 properties. The high in 2024 clocked in at 282 properties, a far cry from about a decade ago, when the peak in the market saw more than 600 homes for sale.
Despite a lack of inventory, there is still high demand for the Vineyard real estate market, which can command global attention. But, according to Ms. Flanders, the buyers seem to have gotten pickier as of late, not wanting to splurge on homes that may need renovations.
“We have buyers, but it has to be just the right property,” she said.
The median price of homes has continued to rise for the last five years. Since 2019, the Island has seen a year-over-year increase, though the pace has started to slow in the last few years.
Between 2019 and 2020, the price went up 31 per cent. For the last two years the rise has been under 3 per cent, going from $1.55 million in 2023 to $1.6 in 2024.
Ms. Flanders expects a course correction at some point, potentially resulting in lower prices.
“I think we will see a slight decrease in some of the listing prices,” she said.
The current market has been especially hard for Island workers trying to find a place to live, realtors said.
In 2021, there were 298 sales under $1 million, or about 42 per cent of the market share, said Abby Rabinovitz, the owner of Tea Lane Associates. By 2024, that number had shrunk to just 94 sales, or about 25 per cent of the market.
“That qualifies as a crisis in my opinion,” Ms Rabinovitz said.
As of Thursday, there were only seven homes on the Island for sale under $1 million.
“When you look at the numbers, people who want to create a life here. . . it’s just getting increasingly hard,” Ms. Rabinovitz said.
With the start of 2025, several realtors said the state of the market could hinge on national trends.
“I think a lot of it depends on the economy,” said Ms. Conroy. “People, I think, have pulled back a little bit, saying we’re just going to wait.”
Lisa Lucier, the owner of Anchor Realty, said January has brought promising signs already. Normally, the first month of the year is painfully slow. But there has been some activity as of late.
“I’m encouraged by the amount of people out there looking at this time of year,” she said. “So far, so good for the start of the year.”
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