The Flynn family has concluded the sale of more than 175 acres to The Job's Neck Trust for more than $6 million.
The property is near but not adjacent to the 800-plus acres that the Flynns recently transferred to the state to become part of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.
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.
The Sharp house on Starbuck’s Neck in Edgartown was sold this week to a Connecticut family for $11,225,000.
The price is a Martha’s Vineyard benchmark of sorts, although a north shore property that included 80 acres of waterfront property sold last year for $12 million.
The summer home on Starbuck’s Neck is a single dwelling on three acres — but among the most prime three acres on the Vineyard, with a lawn down to Edgartown outer harbor facing Edgartown Lighthouse.
The most expensive sale of residential Vineyard real estate was completed on Tuesday in a law office in Boston. An old summer family sold 80 acres of north shore property that fronts Vineyard Sound in West Tisbury for $12 million.
The property, in proximity to Paul's Point, had been in the Albridge C. Smith family since 1943. The sellers were his two daughters: Margaret (Trika) Smith-Burke of Connecticut and Cary Hart of California. The property was put on the market early last winter.
The dollar volume of real estate sales on Martha’s Vineyard was far higher in 1999 than in any previous year, reaching almost $350 million. The previous record, in 1998, was about $308 million.
Although it has been clear in recent years that a real estate boom is sweeping the Island, the figures are stark proof. The current boom began in 1996, when the total real estate sales for the year reached $186 million, climbing to $243 million the following year. The last two years have been simply astonishing.
A property in the Green Hollow section of Edgartown sold last week for $20.5 million, still falling shy of a record for single family real estate sales on Martha’s Vineyard.
A home in the Oyster Watcha Midlands section of Edgartown sold this week for $24.75 million, just shy of the record price for single family home sales on the Vineyard, set nine years ago. The sellers are Megan and Warren Adams.
One of the largest privately-owned properties on the Vineyard goes on the market today with a record asking price. The 314 acres in West Tisbury feature dry oak forest, a private freshwater pond and some 1,200 feet of unspoiled Atlantic Ocean beachfront.