Dukes County, MA
Property Data

Martha's Vineyard: Where America's Most Exclusive Zip Codes Meet a Year-Round Housing Crisis

Dukes County is Martha's Vineyard — and that single fact explains nearly everything unusual in this dataset. The island has long been synonymous with presidential vacations, celebrity compounds, and a summer social scene that feels borrowed from another era. But behind the shingled cottages and ferry terminals lies one of the most economically bifurcated communities in the United States, a place where a $102,000 median household income still leaves working families priced out of a market that largely exists to serve people who don't live there.

The Vacancy Number That Defines Everything

Start here: 58.4% of housing units sit vacant. That figure isn't a sign of economic distress in the traditional sense — it's the signature of a resort economy where the majority of properties are seasonal second homes. With 17,713 total units serving just 7,362 households, the Vineyard has built an enormous housing stock for part-time residents while its year-round workforce scrambles for the scraps. For context, the national vacancy rate hovers around 9%. Dukes County is more than six times that. Every other number in this dataset flows downstream from this structural reality.

Key Statistics

Wealth, Inequality, and the Income Illusion

A Gini coefficient of 0.556 places Dukes County in rare company — comparable to some of the most unequal metro areas in the country. The county's per capita income of $71,014 sounds comfortable until you consider that median home values require a price-to-income ratio of nearly 11x. The renters who keep the restaurants staffed and the fishing boats crewed pay a median rent of $1,371 — relatively modest by Boston standards — but 36.3% of them are rent-burdened, and 12.1% face severe rent burden. That's a community being slowly squeezed off the island it sustains.

The median age of 50.4 and a 65-plus population share of 26% tell a related story: young workers increasingly can't afford to stay. Only 17.3% of residents are under 18, a generational thinning that threatens the long-term vitality of Vineyard schools and civic life.

The Real Estate Market's Seasonal Distortion

The reported -42% year-over-year price change and just five recent sales in the dataset should be read with appropriate skepticism — thin transaction volumes on an island where high-end deals cluster seasonally make short-term price swings statistically volatile. The $532,000 median sale price sits well below the $1.1 million census-estimated home value, reflecting the gap between what actually trades hands in a given window and the full spectrum of island property wealth.

A 74.6% homeownership rate sounds high, but much of that ownership is concentrated among affluent seasonal buyers. The 88.4% single-family home share reflects an island that has largely resisted the apartment density that might otherwise ease pressure on year-round workers.

FAQs

What makes Dukes County unique in the Massachusetts real estate market? Dukes County — Martha's Vineyard — is the only county in Massachusetts that is both an island and an overwhelmingly seasonal real estate market. With over half of all housing units vacant for much of the year, its affordability crisis is structural rather than cyclical: the housing stock was built for wealthy part-timers, not the workforce that keeps the island running year-round.

Is it possible to live affordably on Martha's Vineyard? It's increasingly difficult. Despite a median household income that tops $100,000 — itself elevated by high earners — the price-to-income ratio for buying a home approaches 11x, and a significant share of renters are burdened by housing costs. Community land trusts and workforce housing initiatives have made incremental progress, but the fundamental mismatch between a vacation-home economy and year-round affordability remains largely unsolved.

Why is unemployment relatively high in such a wealthy county? The 6.7% unemployment rate reflects the island's deep seasonality. Hospitality, construction, and service jobs that peak in summer generate significant off-season unemployment among year-round residents — a pattern common to resort economies but jarring when set against $1 million-plus home values on the same streets.