The booming pandemic real estate market has only worsened the Island’s housing crisis, driving rental prices up and drying up inventory.
When the Vineyard Haven home that longtime Island resident Vivian DeSilveira and her family had been renting for the past six years was sold last November, she was given three months to find new housing.
Ms. DeSilveira was pregnant with her second child at the time.
“My head was crazy. We looked everywhere to find another house. We were thinking we would have to move off-Island,” she said. “They were patient with us because they knew we had a newborn coming, but it’s pressure. We knew we had to leave.”
Being forced to move because a landlord had sold a house was a familiar situation for Ms. DeSilveira, who had experienced it twice previously in her 19 years on-Island, and luckily found other stable housing both times.
But this was different. After a frantic search, she and her family ended up renting two rooms in her husband’s cousin’s house. Next year, when the agreement is up, they’ll have to find somewhere else to go.
“Before, like six years ago, it was easy to find a house on the Island,” she said. “Now it’s impossible.”
Renter displacement is a familiar issue on Martha’s Vineyard, where the confluence of pricey summer homes and a dearth of affordable units have made the year-round housing search a sisyphean struggle for Islanders who don’t own property.
But the booming pandemic real estate market has only worsened the Island’s housing crisis, driving rental prices up and drying up inventory — with the loss of rental property an overlooked, and often illegal, side effect.
And as Islanders continue to sell homes at both record rates and record prices, stories from tenants like Ms. DeSilveira are becoming all the more familiar.
The Gazette spoke with tenants, property managers and housing advocates across the Island socio-economic spectrum who had experience with properties getting sold during the recent real estate boom. All of them — from long-term renters with previously secure housing, to those who have survived on the fringes for years — have been forced to navigate an increasingly unaffordable and unforgiving market.
David Vigneault, executive director of the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, said since the pandemic began, his organization has been receiving calls on a weekly basis from renters — or in many cases, landlords on their behalf — who have recently been displaced. The recent numbers are staggering, he said.
“At the housing authority, since after the Great Recession when we resumed business, there has been a somewhat constant trickle of these situations,” Mr. Vigneault said. “That trickle just turned into a raging torrent.”
Ms. DeSilveira said she has multiple friends in similar situations as herself, including a friend who was renting a guest house on the property where Ms. DeSilveira was living. The friend has not yet found a place to live, Ms. DeSilveira said.
“It’s not just the Brazilian community. It’s everybody now,” she said.
The housing authority’s vacancy wait list lost 25 units and gained 20 more wait list members in the period of a month this winter, Mr. Vigneault said. Real estate agents and brokers from multiple Island agencies, including Candy daRosa, a real estate associate at Karen M. Overtoom real estate, said they have begun receiving email blasts multiple times a week from brokers seeking housing arrangements for recently displaced renters. Similar stories have flooded the Facebook group MV Long-term Housing Rentals with few responses.
“It’s affecting everybody at all strata right now,” said Mr. Vigneault, who emphasized that those in higher income levels (whose salaries are 100 per cent, or even 140 per cent of the median Island income) have found themselves straining to afford rent — not to mention those who fall well below the average income, as the Island’s affordability gap skyrockets.
“We’re talking about households making $100,000 who can’t find housing,” Mr. Vigneault said.
Diana Lin, who works as an interior designer for the Island architectural firm Hutker Associates, said she chose to leave her year-round rental when around-the-clock open houses and property tours made living in her basement studio untenable. Her new rental is seasonal.
“It became . . . a disturbance because there would be people coming in to see the room almost every week and I was working from home,” she said. “I really didn’t have a choice at that point.”
Katherine Dockery, a part owner of a family property, said when the primary shareholder decided to sell, she and her family were suddenly out of their home of 12 years. Entering the renter and buyers market simultaneously has been a challenge, she said. “That’s a horrible process. I feel bad for people who have to do the shuffle all the time.”
And with a striking proportion of landlords foregoing formal written leases in favor of more familiar, spoken or at-will agreements, the problem of renter displacement can also be hard to track, swaying in and out of the legal shadows.
According to the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, landlords cannot legally attempt to evict a renter before the end of their lease unless they violate the agreement, even if the landlord sells the house. But renters with less formal or month-to-month lease arrangements can be forced to leave after one rental period. Others simply aren’t aware of the law, and leave on their own accord.
“A really significant number of Island landlords are off the books,” said Mr. Vigneault. “That allows for a lot of extralegal transfer and shifting and moving and shaking on rental arrangements, and that’s a factor.”
One property manager, Carmine Cerone, said two of her tenants who had been renting year-round for nearly seven years were recently displaced. Their lease made no mention about the possibility of a home sale.
Ms. DeSilveira said her year-long lease was supposed to be renewed in September, but the landlord never signed, making the document effectively unenforceable and offering her little recourse.
The recent spate of rental displacements has been driven by two inextricable factors since the pandemic began, Mr. Vigneault said: decreased inventory and increased prices.
In 2020, about 450 homes and 300 parcels of land changed hands, with an average sale price of $1.4 million, shattering previous real estate records.
The pandemic has also prompted former summer residents to remain in their homes for the off-season, in many cases thinning an already threadbare inventory of informal year-round and winter rentals. Mr. Vigneault estimated 1,000 households relocated to their seasonal Island homes last March alone.
“What we had was a steady choking off of [year-round rental] opportunities over the last 20 years and it’s just become an absolute at this point,” said Mr. Vigneault. “We’re not fully aware of the extraordinary degree that the last year of sales transfers . . . has exacerbated what was already a huge problem.”
But rental prices have reflected it.
In a recent housing needs assessment, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission reported that average monthly rents on the Island in 2020 were $1,459, compared to $1,180 in 2010. More steeply priced homes are also driving up rental prices, as some landlords hike monthly fees in an effort to chip away at their astronomical mortgages, brokers said. Other new homeowners aren’t putting their houses up for rent at all.
Ms. Cerone said she knew of a family that had been forced to split up to find housing. Others, like Ms. Lin, have simply considered moving off-Island. But for many, the answer isn’t so simple.
“We love to live on the Island, because it’s quiet, it’s safe for kids and we have our jobs here,” said Ms. DeSilveira. “[But] It’s a sad situation.”
Solutions have also been difficult to come by, affordable housing experts said.
Although the Island has an array of affordable housing groups, ranging from nonprofit developers like the Island Housing Trust to town-sponsored projects, capacity is limite
d compared with the Island’s growing demand. This winter, the regional housing authority has begun offering Covid rent relief for up to 50 per cent of rent for four months. But that doesn’t matter if renters can’t find a unit — or it gets sold.
Ms. Dockery is still looking for housing, unsure if she can afford to buy and struggling to find a rental. Ms. Lin still doesn’t know where she’ll live in the summer. Ms. DeSilveira needs to find stable housing with her newborn.
“I’ve been in this position saying the sky was falling for quite a while and believe me, I’m not the only one and not the loudest one,” Mr. Vigneault said. “But the sky is falling, and it’s falling in bigger chunks right now.”
Comments
If short-term rentals are
Mark EdgartownIf short-term rentals are regulated and taxed, all rentals should be as well. Likely landlords are not paying taxes on the off the books rentals.
I would just like to take a
Dean Rosenthal EdgartownI would just like to take a moment to thank all of our housing advocates and employees across the handful of organizations that attempt to improve this situation for the actual Islanders who allow this Island to function, by virtue of the work people do across many fields so that new property owners can actually enjoy it and live or vacation here. If you are a new property owner, it is hoped that this article can open your eyes, if you are not already aware, of the dire crisis. If you are, be even more aware and engage positively. This is not a situation in which one could say to renters, “if you can’t afford to live here, move or commute” - it is about families, community, ties, and the reality of allowing Martha’s Vineyard to exist. It’s not about adding to the tax base. Those of us with homes are happy everyone pays those taxes. This is a step further. It is about preserving the functional element of an economy.
I'm sure if you check the
BS Oak BluffsI'm sure if you check the Gazette archives there's an identical article written several times over the last few decades. This will never be an affordable place to live. Anyone who has moved here in the last 30 or 40 years knew that coming in. Perhaps they should have checked in with Captain Obvious before they moved here or if they grew up here thinking this was an easy place to make a go of it. The hand wringing over affordable housing has been going on forever yet we still have nurses, teachers, first responders and sanitation workers. They figured it out!
I’m sure if you check the
IBS Oak BluffsI’m sure if you check the Gazette archives you’ll see BS has written a similar comment on each and every housing article regardless of its content. This article pairs with previous coverage of “record-breaking” home sales in 2020 — by definition a unique, historical event warranting coverage. Moreover, this article focuses on the displacement of year-round and seasonal renters who occupied homes that have been sold or put on the market in 2020. Most folks might not know, or might assume, that if a property comes under new ownership that their lease is no longer valid. That is not the case; a lease cannot be broken because the property has been sold. It’s an unfortunate comparison, but we get articles about nor’easters every year and we get articles about the lack of housing every year. The latter is correctable, preventable, able to be stabilized. Until then, it would be dishonest for a paper to ignore an issue that continues to have a deleterious effect on the community simply because people are tired of reading about it.
Such is life, the free market
FOBS EdgartownSuch is life, the free market works well for those who put forth effort. Depended people will always cry for government help, which everyone knows, the government never helps, the government helps themselves. Hard working people will always make it, those who do just enough to get by, will always be envious.
Hi BS, your comment struck me
Concerned MV EdgartownHi BS, your comment struck me as so uniquely bigoted and narcissistic I was moved to respond. So, cheers to you! The acronym seems to be a good fit. Ms. Coleman seems to lay out, pretty straightforwardly in her article, that the working class group of people you refer to (or anyone making under 100k) are finding it increasingly difficult to afford to live on the island. I imagine you make use of the services of nurses, teachers, first responders, and sanitation workers, no? Would it not be in your interest to make sure those people have access to stable housing? So they are not shuffling from home to home each month? So that YOU have access to their services? Or are you too narrow minded and self interested to acknowledge that anyone who comes to an island that has “never been affordable” to work a low paying job serving the wealthier people on the island with stable housing deserve the same opportunities and respect as you and I? Alternatively, there are many parts of this country that don’t have access to high quality nurses, teachers, first responders and sanitation workers like us. Maybe you could move there? They seem to be figuring it out!
Truth
Nativeson Oak bluffsTruth
I share your concerns re:
gutsy bostonI share your concerns re: affordable housing. But "bigoted and narcissistic"is inappropriate and detracts from your intent.
Taking it "personal" just doesn't add value or credence to your message.
It is truly an “island”
RJC TisburyIt is truly an “island” fantasy that it should somehow be “affordable” to live on an island that has no natural industry. By the way, unless you grabbed hold of the whaling bubble, that’s been the case for roughly all of time. This is an island built on the backs of a luxury second home/resort economy. Have you watched JAWS? Its more or less an expensive suburb of Boston. Try to live on the water, or in a community with low taxes and good schools ANYWHERE in New England, the Mid Atlantic, California....enough. There is no island housing “crisis” there is a crisis of people who think they somehow should be able to live on a resort island, pay low taxes, send their kids to good schools, and bartend 4 months of the year (all the while complaining that tourists are ruining the “history” of the island”.). Good lord; enough.
Spot on.
Jonathan K. MVYSpot on.
Well stated, @RJC. There are
Chas VHWell stated, @RJC. There are many less expensive places to live.
Hey BS. Thousands of year
Local MvYHey BS. Thousands of year round people living were born here and are trying to live in their own community. Just because you came here doesn’t mean we all did.
One of the issues is the
Bob EdgartownOne of the issues is the island attitude of no more building of any kind. The MVC killed a housing development that would’ve brought much-needed affordable housing as well as $1 million to help fund affordable housing and they were adamantly against it. We need to increase density in many of our zones if we really would like to tackle this problem.
One of the issues is the
Bob EdgartownOne of the issues is the island attitude of no more building of any kind. The MVC killed a housing development that would’ve brought much-needed affordable housing as well as $1 million to help fund affordable housing and they were adamantly against it. We need to increase density in many of our zones if we really would like to tackle this problem.
This is a great example where
Meredith West TisburyThis is a great example where free market capitalism continues to expand the unsustainable wealth gap as opportunity for people to find their own way narrows.
I rent our guest house to year round renters because I want to be part of the solution, but the way the market works, I could make a lot more income by NOT doing so. To allow market forces to dictate options, limits options for families who cannot rent one room to get by or move often. It also leaves a shortage of workers to keep the businesses open, as we saw over the last two years.
I’m struggling to understand the NIMBY-ism, the anecdotal “evidence” that people don’t ‘deserve’ to live in such a beautiful place (unless, of course, they have enough money or connections), and the lack of support for larger scale solutions.
How is it possible to make
Michael OBHow is it possible to make ALOT more income by not renting than renting.
I've been a landlord for 30 years and truly can't figure your statement out.
Short term solution: park an
Bw EdgartownShort term solution: park an unused cruise ship (100-150 berths) near a ferry terminal as temporary emergency housing for homeless/employees in desperate need.
How many of us have an unused
Michael OBHow many of us have an unused cruise ship in our back yards ?
I do not assert to being a
David A. Jordan, DHA Hidden Cove / OBI do not assert to being a housing expert or someone with generations of history on the island (David Vigneault is both) but as an employer and provider of social & human services ( Seven Hills Foundation - MV Supports) for several decades here I knew that when we moved to and renovated a new office / program facility in VH that I needed to simultaneously build housing / apartment options into our business plan if we were to have any possibility of attracting and retaining staff: and so we did and they have been full since the day we opened. My point being - perhaps David V. and other housing advocates can further the dialogue between “employers” and town officials around the Island to incentivize the businesses to build in a percentage of housing units / total employees into their business operations from the outset. Rather than wait for some large government funded housing complex to be funded - can we work with local businesses to plan their own housing options ( perhaps with the help of the MV Housing Authority) for their employees OR ask them to contribute a small percentage of their net profits to a housing development trust to allow the housing authority to create options for local workers and their families. If we look only to ‘ someone else’ to solve the need in balancing our own quality of Island life with the need for sustainable small businesses and affordable housing for those we employ - perhaps individual businesses should be drawn further into the dialogue. It’s good for business- it’s good for the Island- it’s good for our local economy- and it provides a dignified option for the workers who keep our Island afloat.
The Gazette archives provide
Nelson Sigelman Vineyard HavenThe Gazette archives provide an example of one employer's effort to provide housing. See June 5, 2006 "Cozy Heart Project Backers Will Appeal" (https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2006/06/05/cozy-hearth-project-backers…)
One untold aspect of the
Shelley C Oak BluffsOne untold aspect of the story: Many of the landlords who are selling properties lately are doing so out of their own economic distress. A sad domino effect. The Vineyard is an increasingly trying place to own as well as to rent.
Housing is and has been an
Abby Normal The RockHousing is and has been an issue for decades here. When you have a second home/resort island dependent on tax revenues (55 percent of folks do not live in their homes full time, nearly 75 percent do not live in their home year round in Chilmark) means "others" pay for many of our services, yet do not use them. You want smart growth, use pre-existing dense areas, existing infrastructure, emphasizing transit availability and/or walkable for shopping. Is it easy to live here? No, never has been. Do people do it? Yes, they have for decades and prior to that the indigenous folks, who obviously came from some where else.
Solving the issue? Not likely. Is that bad? Depends, is your toilet clogged? You electricity off due to a blown circuit? Without a middle level, hard working men and women, costs will only continue to escalate.
We may become an area for digital nomads bringing their high earnings/spending to the island. Time will tell.
Giving a helping hand is different then giving a hand out.
A truly urgent crisis which
Dennis McAndrews WayneA truly urgent crisis which needs funding to address. A tax on sales is the only realistic stable funding source.
There are so many expensive
lisaThere are so many expensive Air BnB units. Why cant the Island make an incentive of some kind for local families to live in those units. Give the landlords some kind of exemption to encourage.
It's a zero sum game, if you
Mark EdgartownIt's a zero sum game, if you equalize the economics to homeowners to incentivize year round rentals it will need to be funded with tax dollars that need to be replaced elsewhere. In this case elsewhere would equate to increased property taxes.
There are some good people
Charlie Callahan So Boston/EdgartownThere are some good people who try to push affordable housing here,but there are a lot more who do whatever it takes to stop it and they are the ones with the fat wallets. Nothings gonna change until the state steps in halts real estate sales,until the island complies with the number of affordable units,which I think is suppose to be around 10% of the total units in an area
The only way to fix the
MJ West TisburyThe only way to fix the problem, See if the county can make some kind of agreement with the state for some state forest land. get 50 acres of land and build a mix of 1000 sq ft homes and apartments. Should be able to house a min of 100 families. Other than that.. there is no way to get ahead of the problem..
I completely agree. In fact,
TLC West TisburyI completely agree. In fact, each Town should have an apartment complex so one school is not overwhelmed by one development. We need local workers and local workers need affordable year round housing. Not everyone is going to be a homeowner. Youth lots have helped many, but not nearly enough to address housing. The problem will persist until the towns get behind apartments.
I built a SIPS building and
Frank Brunelle Vineyard HavenI built a SIPS building and with surface mounted plumbing (all copper) and electric it came in at around $110. p.s.f. So the land is the problem. Now regs allow hotels - and a hotel can be condo-ed - Vineyard Harbor Hotel for example. So units could be built with the intention of selling, renting, units could be part of an association and a desk clerk could rent a unit by the day, week, month and there are tons of possibilities. SIPS is better at insulation, strength, no framing, rated up to 140 mph for hurricanes and is constructed easily in days, not months. SIPS hotel permitted in a beautiful pastoral environment would work easily and only question is land cost.
I've been here 20 years
spenceI've been here 20 years probably 10 too long lived in 30 places, each one more expensive then the last and smaller. without a doubt 100% the lack of affordable housing will be the downfall of the island if it already isn't. there will never ever be a solution that you can take to the bank
While exploring options for a
Reader from afar NebraskaWhile exploring options for a second home I tried to learn more about mv which included trying to learn more about year round residents. Upon reading the article I was reminded of another article about the effect the pandemic is having on real estate prices and the bidding wars which have ensued which an be viewed at https://cnb.cx/2MZbCG4. It is of interest how changes to zoning density regulations and allowance of secondary residences have been used in other areas to provide mor affordable rental options. It seems interesting that zoning to maintain the character or exclusivity of properties on mv may be doing more to help the summer residents than the “real”” residents of mv. Do not the full time residents have the voting clout to influence this discussion?
Did someone say schools?
Paul ChilmarkDid someone say schools?
There is the answer.. June July and August the schools are empty.
Each town should offer emergency accommodations to essential workers .
Creativity and loosening of very strick rules can accomplish this in a very quick turnaround.....
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