Mad Martha’s Sale Leads to Triple-Scoop of Donations
Three different charities are set to receive a combined $32,000 from Feiner Real Estate after the sale of the Mad Martha’s ice cream locations in downtown Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.
Buoyed by a rising real estate market, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is on track to end the year on a high note for revenues.
Historic low interest rates that have led to a flood of mortgage refinancings in recent months have by accident exposed a marked trend of slumping property values on the Vineyard.
In roughly 75 per cent of June home reappraisals conducted on behalf of Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, the Island’s largest lender, properties were found to be below their assessed values.
According to bank president Chris Wells, it is an Islandwide, evolving trend.
The real estate market on the Vineyard had already begun to see a sharp downturn this year, and the recent collapse in global financial markets and turmoil on Wall Street certainly has not made things better.
Statistical evidence gathered from Banker and Tradesman online, which compiles real estate figures from sale documents, shows the Dukes County housing market is off sharply from last year, with sales down almost 15 per cent and prices off by more than nine per cent.
The statistical evidence shows the real estate market on Martha’s Vineyard remains in a hole, but the anecdotal evidence suggests it might at last be beginning to climb out.
Figures for the period up to the start of August this year show sales numbers and prices both down sharply compared with the same period in 2007 — which was itself a bad year for real estate.
The median price paid for family homes to August 4 was down in all the Island towns, according to figures from Banker and Tradesman online, which compiles its figures from sale documents.
The gradual two-year decline of residential home sales now resembles a bobsled run: it’s picking up speed but has some interesting twists and turns
New single family home permits issued last year on the Vineyard soared 38 per cent over 2006, a rate of increase reminiscent of the building booms