Win a Vineyard home

Here’s your chance to win a house on Martha’s Vineyard.

Seriously.

The Island Affordable Housing Fund is teaming up with the Island Elderly Housing group to raffle off a new two-bedroom, LEED certified Cape in Edgartown. The goal is to raise money for affordable housing initiatives and programs that benefit seniors on the island, such as the senior van and community meals program.

They will sell a maximum of 600 tickets for $1,000 a piece -– which would raise $600,000 for island programs.

Now, you may be thinking the folks on Martha’s Vineyard are all rich and they don’t have to worry about affordable housing. But that just isn’t true. As in many vacation destinations, you don’t have to look far to find year-rounders who work multiple jobs -- often in low-paying service industry jobs -- to make ends meet. Oftentimes, juggling three jobs isn’t even enough in vacation areas like the Vineyard or Cape Cod, because second-home owners have driven up property prices making it impossible for year-rounders to buy a home.

Just look at Edgartown. For the first half of 2008, the median single-family house sale price there was $637,500, according to Banker & Tradesman. (By comparison, the median sale price for single-family homes was $325,000 for the entire state in the second quarter, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.)

Meanwhile, the island's median income level is $66,100 for a family of four, according to the Vineyard Housing Office. And housing is only considered affordable if the total costs -- mortgage, taxes, utilities -- amount to no more than 30% of the family income. Suffice it to say, $66,100 a year isn’t going to buy anyone a $600,000 home.

So if you want to take a shot at winning a Vineyard home, or just want to help out the cause, you can either visit the IAHF or IEH offices on the island, or you can purchase them online at www.islandaffordable.org or www.key2mv.org. The deadline for purchasing tickets is 1 p.m. Oct. 9, and a random drawing will be held Oct. 11.

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