The Real Cost of Owning Property in Tisbury, Massachusetts

Purchase Price: A 2022 Baseline, Not a Current Number

The single most useful real-estate data point turned up in research for this page is also the one that most needs a caveat attached to it: a Vineyard Gazette headline, "Property Values Soar in Tisbury, as Median Home Price Approaches $1 Million" (Dec. 9, 2022), reported Tisbury's median home price at that time as just under $1 million. That's a real, dated, town-specific figure - stronger than what's available for some neighboring Vineyard towns - but it is now roughly three and a half years old as of this writing (July 2026), and Martha's Vineyard real estate has been on a well-documented upward trend since, including a Vineyard Gazette piece as recent as January 22, 2026, "Island Real Estate Market Sees Steady, But Expensive Growth," describing island-wide (not Tisbury-specific) continued price increases. Treat the $1 million figure strictly as a December 2022 baseline, never as a current price.

A dedicated search this pass checked Zillow ("Tisbury MA Single Family Homes For Sale"), Redfin (which appears to track Tisbury and Vineyard Haven as two separate geographies), NeighborhoodScout, RE/MAX Generations, Compass, and Coldwell Banker Realty - all maintain live, current Tisbury/Vineyard Haven-specific pages, but none returned a readable current (2025-2026) median or average price figure this pass. A CBS Boston piece on Massachusetts cities and towns with median sale prices over $1 million appeared alongside the 2022 Gazette article in search results, suggesting Tisbury may now appear on a current statewide list of $1-million-plus towns - but whether it does, and for which year, was not confirmed. Get a current MLS pull or a Martha's Vineyard-focused real estate agent's read before pricing a purchase here.

Property Tax: No Confirmed Rate, Plus a $1 Million Override Tied to Sewer Funding

No specific current Tisbury mill rate was confirmed this pass. The town's own site hosts a dedicated "Primer on Tisbury Real Estate Taxes" page (tisburyma.gov/235/Primer-on-Tisbury-Real-Estate-Taxes) - a direct, real primary source - but it could not be independently retrieved. Comparative sources exist (the O'Hanlon Group's "Martha's Vineyard - Real Estate Taxes" post, and joeshimkus.com's "2026 Massachusetts Property Tax Rates by Town" tool) but neither was confirmed to include Tisbury's current figure this pass. Confirm the current rate directly with the Tisbury Assessor's Office before treating any number as settled.

What is confirmed, current, and concrete: at the same spring 2026 Annual Town Meeting and Election, Tisbury voters approved a Proposition 2½ override of roughly $1 million and voted to expand the town's own Select Board, per same-day headlines - Vineyard Gazette's "Tisbury Voters Back Larger Select Board and Approve Override" and MV Times' "Tisbury Voters Back Expanding Select Board, Overrides" (both Apr. 30, 2026). A companion piece, "Tisbury Town Meeting to Consider Override, Sewer Funds" (Apr. 23, 2026), indicates the override was tied at least in part to sewer-system funding - a concrete, practical infrastructure detail for a working-harbor town, rather than an abstract description of what Proposition 2½ overrides do generally. The exact new size of the Select Board, and the precise dollar allocation between sewer funding and other purposes within the roughly $1 million override, were not extracted this pass.

Short-Term Rentals: The Tax Stack, and a Cap Voters Chose to Keep

Massachusetts' statewide short-term rental law, Chapter 337 of the Acts of 2018, applies in Tisbury the same as anywhere else in the state: a 5.7% state room-occupancy excise plus mandatory registration. Towns may add a local-option excise on top of that state floor, and the Cape Cod & Islands Water Protection Fund adds a further 2.75% excise in participating towns - a mechanism this site's Oak Bluffs research flagged as likely, but not confirmed, to apply across Dukes County generally; the same caveat applies here rather than repeating that research. Confirm Tisbury's specific local-option rate and whether the Water Protection Fund excise currently applies directly with the Tisbury Town Clerk or the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's list of participating municipalities before budgeting a short-term rental around a specific effective tax rate.

On top of the tax question, Tisbury has an existing town bylaw capping the number of short-term rentals, and in spring 2026 voters explicitly chose to keep it rather than remove it. A dated sequence of MV Times headlines confirms the story: "Tisbury Considers Eliminating a Cap on Short-Term Rentals" (Feb. 13, 2026); "Tisbury Voters to Consider Elimination of Short-Term Rental Cap" (Apr. 23, 2026, the same date as that year's Town Meeting); and "Tisbury Denies Short-Term Rental Cap Removal" (Apr. 29, 2026) - together confirming that, as of this writing, Tisbury has an existing STR cap and that town meeting voters declined to eliminate it. The specific numeric cap (how many permits, or what share of housing stock, it covers) and the vote margin were not extracted this pass. Anyone evaluating a short-term rental purchase in Tisbury should get the current, adopted cap terms directly from the Tisbury Town Clerk or tisburyma.gov, not from this page - and should take care not to confuse Tisbury's cap with West Tisbury's separate, already-finalized STR bylaw, a different rule in a different town.

Affordable Housing: A Smaller-Scale 40B Project, Distinct from Its Neighbors

A real, current, and comparatively modest Chapter 40B affordable-housing project is moving through Tisbury. MV Times' "Housing Trust Pursues 15-Bedroom 40B Project in Tisbury" (Jan. 15, 2025) and Vineyard Gazette's "Tisbury Clears the Way for New Affordable Housing Project" (Sept. 21, 2025) together confirm the Island Housing Trust, a named nonprofit affordable-housing developer, is pursuing a specific 15-bedroom project, and that the town cleared a procedural hurdle for it in September 2025. This is a smaller-scale, distinct story from Edgartown's Edgartown Gardens/Katama Meadows fight or Oak Bluffs' 116-unit Green Villa project - it should not be read as a substitute for either, and this page does not recycle those towns' figures here. The project's current status as of mid-2026, its specific site address, and whether it has secured full approval were not confirmed this pass.

Flood and Coastal Risk: A Funded Seawall Project, Real Sources Not Yet a Number

Tisbury's coastal exposure runs primarily through its working harbor (Vineyard Haven Harbor, with real commercial marine-trade infrastructure directly on the water) and the Vineyard Sound-facing north shore around West Chop and the Lake Tashmoo inlet - a different kind of exposure than Edgartown's barrier-beach/Chappaquiddick story or Oak Bluffs' low-lying downtown/causeway story. A real, current, federally documented project anchors this: FEMA has funded planning work for a seawall along the Beach Road corridor, per a Vineyard Gazette piece, "FEMA Commits Cash to Tisbury Seawall Planning" (Apr. 24, 2023), and a companion MV Times piece, "Tisbury Receives Funding for Seawall Replacement" (Apr. 18, 2023). A named engineering firm, Tighe & Bond, maintains a project page for "Beach Road Resiliency Improvements," and the town's own site hosts a related planning-summary document. The project's specific cost, timeline, and current construction status were not confirmed this pass.

A 1991 Vineyard Gazette headline, "Damage in Millions; Worst Destruction Is Seen on Harborfront," describes the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Bob and plausibly refers to Vineyard Haven Harbor - but this was not confirmed as Tisbury-specific this pass, as opposed to referring to another island harbor, and should not be cited as a settled Tisbury damage figure. Get a current flood-zone determination, a licensed surveyor's read, and an insurance quote from an agent experienced with Massachusetts island risk before treating any specific address's flood status as settled.

Schools and Hospital: Two Common Mix-Ups, Corrected

Two practical-living facts are easy to get wrong here, and worth stating plainly. Tisbury has its own K-8 school, the Tisbury School, feeding into the regional high school - but Martha's Vineyard Regional High School itself is located in Oak Bluffs, not Tisbury, despite some aggregator sites inconsistently mislabeling its town. And Martha's Vineyard Hospital, the island's only hospital, is located at 1 Hospital Road in Oak Bluffs, not Tisbury - confirmed via Mass General Brigham's own facility directory, Healthgrades, US News, RateMDs, and the hospital's own Facebook page. Tisbury residents, like residents of every other Vineyard town besides Oak Bluffs, travel to Oak Bluffs for hospital care and for the regional high school. Do not assume either institution sits in Tisbury simply because it's the island's most populous year-round town.

What This Page Can't Tell You

A few genuinely important numbers were not confirmable this pass, and this page states that plainly rather than filling the gap with an invented figure. No specific current (2025-2026) median or average Tisbury home sale price was confirmed, despite a dedicated attempt against Zillow, Redfin, NeighborhoodScout, RE/MAX Generations, Compass, and Coldwell Banker Realty - the one real, dated figure found, a median price "approaching $1 million," is a December 2022 baseline and must not be read as current. No specific current Tisbury property-tax mill rate was confirmed, despite tisburyma.gov's own "Primer on Tisbury Real Estate Taxes" page existing as a direct primary source. The exact numeric short-term rental cap Tisbury voters chose to keep in April 2026, and that vote's margin, were not extracted. The exact new size of the expanded Select Board and the precise sewer-versus-other allocation of the roughly $1 million override were not extracted. Whether the Cape Cod & Islands Water Protection Fund's 2.75% excise currently applies to Dukes County/Tisbury short-term rentals was not confirmed. The Island Housing Trust's 40B project's current status, the Beach Road seawall project's cost and timeline, and whether the 1991 Hurricane Bob "harborfront" damage headline refers specifically to Vineyard Haven Harbor were all not confirmed.

None of this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice. For a specific property's assessed value and current tax bill, contact the Tisbury Assessor's Office directly. For current short-term rental rules, contact the Tisbury Town Clerk or check tisburyma.gov directly. For an up-to-date price comparison, a Martha's Vineyard-focused real estate agent or a live MLS pull is the right source. And for any tax-planning, insurance, or zoning decision, work with a licensed Massachusetts tax professional, an insurance agent familiar with island risk, and the Martha's Vineyard Commission directly before making a financial commitment.