Market Basket Forces that Effect Housing Affordability

As part of the Housing Needs Update 2005, the consultant provided a snapshot comparing other essential costs of living on the island to statewide norms. It is not just housing costs that tax ordinary residents with higher living costs. Here are a few findings based on surveys done in the last week of February 2005:

Groceries 9.1% higher
Heating Oil 8.2% higher
Propane 35.4% higher
Gasoline 27.4% higher

Anecdotally, many residents believe grocery costs, at least, to be even higher during the summer months. These relatively few factors constitute only about 30% of the basic market basket of good and services needed. A more comprehensive and continued assessment of basic living costs is needed to determine just how much of a premium living on Martha’s Vineyard requires of ordinary residents (see recommendations in Summary).

This is an excerpt from the Martha's Vineyard Housing Needs Update -- 2005
produced for the Island Affordable Housing Fund
by John J. Ryan — Development Cycles
July 2005