Edgartown, MA STR Market Report 2026: A Harbor Town's Own Year

Jacob Mishalanie
5 days ago
14 min read

Edgartown harbor mooring field and wooden wharf, Martha's Vineyard, photograph

Walk down North Water Street in Edgartown in late July and you will see the whaling captains' houses standing exactly where they were built two centuries ago — white clapboard, black shutters, widow's walks facing a harbor that still fills with wooden sailboats instead of ferries loaded with mopeds. That's the town most hosts are trying to sell when they list a driveway three blocks off the green. The trouble is that most of the marketing copy floating around this market was written for a different island town entirely — one with a Ferris wheel and a beer garden, not a lighthouse and a courthouse.

Edgartown and Oak Bluffs sit fifteen minutes apart on the same island and get treated online as interchangeable. They are not interchangeable, and the AirROI numbers for the two towns prove it. This report exists to give Edgartown hosts and buyers a single, dated, town-specific number set — pulled fresh, not blended with a neighbor's year — so a listing description, a pricing calendar, or a purchase decision can be built on this town's actual performance instead of a Vineyard-wide guess. This is not legal advice.

The Edgartown number, on its own line

AirROI's Edgartown extract, covering August 2025 through July 2026 and updated August 8, 2026, shows a typical year of about $50,351 across 264 active listings. Occupancy sits at 35.5%, average daily rate at $905, and RevPAR at $341. That occupancy figure looks low next to a beach-town instinct that wants to see 50% or 60%, but it is paired with an ADR north of $900 — this is a market that earns its living from fewer, higher-value nights, not from filling every calendar square.

Ninety-seven percent of the 264 active listings in that extract are entire home or apartment units. Edgartown is not a private-room-in-a-house market and it is not a hostel-bunk market. Hosts who are shopping this town for a purchase or benchmarking an existing listing should be comparing against whole-house performance, because that is nearly the entire competitive set.

Why Oak Bluffs and Tisbury do not belong in this number

The brief for this cluster flagged Edgartown as the strongest Martha's Vineyard town that clears a $45,000 annual gate without leaning on a neighbor's listing stock, and the AirROI data backs that up cleanly. Oak Bluffs pulls about $41,957 a year across 319 listings, with occupancy at 37.3% and ADR at $696 — a real number, but one that sits under the $45K line and describes a fundamentally different product: a lower-ADR, gingerbread-cottage-and-nightlife market built around the ferry terminal and Circuit Avenue.

Tisbury, home to the Vineyard Haven ferry dock, comes in at roughly $46,220 a year across 185 listings, occupancy 39.3%, ADR $656. That is a real number too, and it clears $45K, but it is a leftover town in this cluster rather than a second full profile — a different guest, a different desk, a different reason to book. Blending either of those towns into an "Edgartown average" would understate what a harbor-district or historic-listing stock listing in Edgartown actually earns, and it would misdirect a host's pricing calendar toward a lower-ADR pattern that doesn't match this town's guest.

The calendar: August is the peak, January is the floor

AirROI names August as Edgartown's peak revenue month, with July and June close behind — the classic summer-ferry season when the harbor fills with boats and the historic district fills with foot traffic. The softest months are January, February, and March, when the town empties out and the guest pool narrows to almost nothing.

That gap between a $905 ADR summer and a near-dormant winter is the single most important planning fact in this report. A pricing calendar or a minimum-stay policy that treats Edgartown as one flat season will either leave peak revenue on the table in July or sit empty and overpriced in February. The shoulder months — spring and fall — are where a host's actual skill shows up, and that gap is worth its own conversation (see the shoulder-season post in this cluster).

The practical takeaway for anyone building a 2026 calendar off this report: treat June through August as the revenue engine and protect those weekends with firm minimum stays, treat the shoulder months as a place to earn incremental bookings with flexible stay lengths rather than steep discounts, and treat the winter hole as a deliberate close rather than a failure to fill. Trying to force winter occupancy in Edgartown by dropping rates aggressively tends to attract a guest who doesn't match the property or the town, without moving the needle much on total annual revenue.

What's still open at the town desk

This report does not have a confirmed, published Edgartown town STR registration page on file — the kind of standalone certificate process some Cape and Islands towns like Nantucket or Chatham publish directly. That does not mean no requirement exists; it means this pack could not verify a primary town page for it as of this write. Hosts should confirm directly with the Town of Edgartown and the Board of Health before listing, rather than assuming AirROI's general "STR Regulation Level: Low" tag settles the question.

What is confirmed is that Massachusetts runs a statewide room-occupancy and short-term rental registration through the Department of Revenue, via MassTaxConnect, and that applies regardless of what a given town's local process looks like. Dukes County itself is not a licensing desk for an individual Edgartown address — it is the county the town sits in, not a substitute permit office. This is not legal advice; hosts should confirm both the town path and the state DOR registration before taking a booking.

The rules post in this cluster goes deeper on the town-hall specifics. For this report, the operating principle is simple: match the desk to the address. A Chappaquiddick or downtown Edgartown driveway files with the Town of Edgartown and the state, not with Dukes County and not with Oak Bluffs' process.

Chappaquiddick and the ferry: access, not occupancy

Chappaquiddick sits just across the harbor from Edgartown, reachable by the small On Time ferry, and it shows up constantly in local marketing as a day-trip extension of the town. It is a real geography worth mentioning to guests, but it is a leftover inside Edgartown's identity, not a separate market with its own occupancy number in this report — and this pack does not have verified ferry ridership counts to cite, so none are guessed here.

The Steamship Authority's Vineyard boats are the island's access point from the mainland, and they matter enormously for guest planning, but they are a transportation fact, not a permit fact. Confusing SSA schedules or ridership with an occupancy metric is a common mistake in Vineyard-wide content; this report keeps the two separate.

Nantucket is a different island, a different report

Nantucket gets mentioned constantly in the same breath as the Vineyard, and it is worth saying plainly: Nantucket is a separate island with its own ferry system, its own town desk, and its own market report elsewhere in this content series. Pulling a Nantucket number into an Edgartown pricing conversation is the same mistake as pulling in Oak Bluffs — a different market wearing a similar name.

Reading tourism data the right way

The Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce and the Steamship Authority both publish visitor-side numbers — ridership, chamber estimates, general island traffic. Dukes County also tracks lodging tax collection at the county level. None of those figures are the same thing as Edgartown's booked-night occupancy, and treating a chamber visitor estimate as a proxy for STR performance overstates what any single listing is likely to see. The tourism-data post in this cluster walks through how to use those sources correctly, as context rather than as a stand-in for the AirROI extract.

What the historic district actually sells

Edgartown's historic district is a working part of the town's identity, not a museum backdrop — sea captains' houses along North Water and Main Street, the white steeple of the Old Whaling Church, the Vincent House, brick sidewalks that predate the automobile. Guests who book in Edgartown are frequently booking that specific texture: walkable, quiet after dark, harbor views instead of a boardwalk scene. A listing photographed and described to emphasize that texture — rather than generic "beach house" language that could describe any coastal town — is doing the actual work of matching supply to demand.

That distinction sounds like marketing advice more than market data, but it shows up in the numbers indirectly: a $905 ADR in a 264-listing market with 97% entire-home listing stock means guests are paying a premium for whole-property privacy in a specific, recognizable place. A listing that undersells the place is leaving that premium on the table regardless of how good the interior photos are.

Reading the occupancy number correctly

A 35.5% occupancy rate can look alarming to a host used to reading it as a raw fill rate against a full calendar of 365 nights. But in a market with a hard summer peak and a genuinely dormant winter, occupancy averaged across the full year will always look lower than a Sun Belt market that books shoulder-to-shoulder in every season. The more useful way to read Edgartown's number is as a composite: near-full peak-season occupancy at $905-plus rates, a workable shoulder if a host actively prices for it, and a winter stretch where most listings sit dark rather than chase low-rate bookings that don't cover the effort.

That composite matters because a host benchmarking their own trailing twelve against the town figure should expect their summer months to run well above 35.5% and their winter months to run near zero — not a flat 35.5% every month. A listing that shows a flat occupancy curve across all twelve months in this market is either underpricing peak season or overpricing the shoulder, not performing "average."

Entry cost and the yield conversation

Edgartown's historic district and harbor-adjacent listing stock carry some of the highest property values on the island, and this report does not have a verified current median sale price or ZHVI figure to cite — that number moves too often and varies too widely by exact location (in-village versus outer-town) to state a single figure responsibly here. What can be said plainly is that a $50,351 typical gross year, however strong it looks in isolation, needs to be weighed against a genuinely high entry cost before anyone calls this a high-yield play.

That's a conversation for the buying and financing posts elsewhere in this cluster, which walk through how to underwrite this specific town's numbers against a specific purchase price rather than a generic Vineyard assumption. The point for this report is narrower: a strong gross-revenue figure and a strong net-yield figure are two different claims, and Edgartown's high ADR does not automatically translate into a high cap rate once entry cost is factored in.

It's also worth being explicit about what this report is not: it is not a substitute for a buyer's own underwriting, and it is not a claim that every Edgartown property performs at the $50,351 typical-year level. A one-bedroom cottage three streets off the harbor and a five-bedroom captain's house on North Water Street both sit inside that 264-listing dataset, and they do not earn the same revenue. The town-wide figure is a starting benchmark, not a per-property forecast, and anyone sizing a specific address should pull comparable listings for that property type and location before finalizing a number.

Where this report connects to the rest of the cluster

This market report is the anchor for a set of Edgartown-specific posts built on the same dataset. The how-to-market post takes the town-specific texture described above and turns it into listing-copy and photo-sequencing guidance. The rules post goes deeper on the Town of Edgartown and Massachusetts DOR registration question flagged above. The tourism-data post breaks down the Chamber, Steamship Authority, and Dukes County lodging-tax figures in more detail and shows exactly where each one does and does not apply to a host's occupancy planning.

For hosts weighing a purchase rather than optimizing an existing listing, the buying and financing posts in this cluster pick up where this report leaves off, walking through how to size entry cost against the $50,351 typical-year figure without assuming a blended Vineyard number or a neighbor town's comp. None of those posts exist to replace this one — they exist because a single report can only go so deep on any one thread before it stops being a market overview and starts being five different articles stitched together.

A self-diagnosis checklist before you trust this number

Before applying the $50,351 typical-year figure to a specific property, a host or buyer should walk through a short set of questions rather than taking the town-wide average at face value. Is the property entire-home, matching the 97% of the dataset this figure is built on, or is it a smaller unit that competes in a thinner slice of the market? Is it inside the walkable historic district and harbor area, or on the outer edges of town where guest demand and comparable ADR both run lower? Has the listing's trailing-twelve occupancy actually mirrored the peak-August, dormant-January pattern this report describes, or has it been flat all year — a sign the calendar is mispriced in one direction or the other?

A host who answers those questions honestly usually finds their own numbers sit somewhat above or below the town-wide figure, and that gap is informative rather than alarming. A property that consistently underperforms the town composite despite matching its physical profile is usually a marketing and pricing problem, not a market problem — the demand described in this report exists, and the question becomes whether a specific listing is capturing its share of it.

Common mistakes when reading this report

The most frequent error is averaging Edgartown with a neighboring town to produce a softer, blander "Vineyard number" — folding Oak Bluffs' $41,957 or Tisbury's $46,220 into an Edgartown pricing decision. That produces a number that describes no real property anywhere on the island, and it tends to undersell what a well-positioned Edgartown listing can actually command. The second most common error is treating 35.5% occupancy as a flat monthly target rather than a full-year composite of a near-full summer and a dormant winter, which leads hosts to either underprice August or keep chasing rate cuts in February that don't move annual revenue.

A third mistake worth naming directly: treating Martha's Vineyard Chamber visitor estimates, Steamship Authority ridership, or AirROI's general regulation-level tag as settled facts about occupancy or permitting. Visitor traffic and ferry ridership are useful context for understanding demand, but they are not occupancy data, and a regulation-level label is not the same as a confirmed town permit process. Each of those distinctions gets its own fuller treatment elsewhere in this cluster, but a host reading only this report should at least know where the soft spots are before building a plan around them.

What this means for a host or a buyer sizing 2026

For an existing host, the actionable read is: $905 ADR is achievable in this market, but 35.5% occupancy means the calendar has real gaps, and closing those gaps in the shoulder months — not just chasing rate in August — is where incremental revenue actually lives. For a buyer evaluating a purchase, the $50,351 typical-year figure is a starting point for underwriting this specific town's year, not a floor guaranteed to every property, and it should be checked against the buyer's own comparable set at draft time.

The throughline for every post in this cluster is the same: Edgartown is its own line item. Not Oak Bluffs' number rounded up, not Tisbury's number borrowed sideways, not a Vineyard-wide blend. A listing, a pricing strategy, or a purchase decision built on this town's actual figures will outperform one built on a regional guess — and that gap compounds every season a host gets it wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an Airbnb make in Edgartown, MA?

AirROI's Edgartown extract, covering August 2025 through July 2026, shows a typical year of about $50,351 across 264 active listings, with 35.5% occupancy, a $905 average daily rate, and RevPAR of $341. That figure describes the town's overall listing pool, not a guarantee for any single property, and individual results depend on location, size, and how the listing is marketed.

Is Edgartown the same market as Oak Bluffs?

No. Oak Bluffs is a separate town with its own AirROI year, roughly $41,957 across 319 listings at 37.3% occupancy and a $696 ADR — a lower-rate, higher-occupancy pattern tied to its ferry terminal and nightlife identity. Edgartown's harbor-and-historic-district market runs a different guest profile and a meaningfully higher ADR, and the two towns should not be averaged together.

What about Tisbury — is that the same as Edgartown?

Tisbury, home to the Vineyard Haven ferry dock, posts about $46,220 a year across 185 listings at 39.3% occupancy and a $656 ADR. It clears the same $45,000 gate Edgartown does, but it's tracked here as a leftover town in this cluster, not a second full Vineyard profile, and its lower ADR reflects a different guest mix than Edgartown's historic-district listing stock.

When is the slow season in Edgartown?

AirROI names January, February, and March as the softest months for Edgartown listings, with August as the peak revenue month and July and June close behind. That winter stretch is when the town's population and guest pool shrink dramatically, and hosts who plan around it — rather than pricing it like summer — tend to fare better.

Does Edgartown require a short-term rental permit?

This is not legal advice. This report did not find a confirmed, published Edgartown town STR registration page as of this write, though that doesn't mean no local requirement exists — hosts should confirm directly with the Town of Edgartown and the Board of Health. Massachusetts also runs a statewide room-occupancy and short-term rental registration through the Department of Revenue via MassTaxConnect, which applies regardless of the local process.

Is Dukes County the permitting authority for an Edgartown rental?

No. Dukes County is the county Edgartown sits in, but it is not a substitute STR licensing desk for an individual property. An Edgartown address files with the Town of Edgartown (and the state DOR), not with the county government, and not with a neighboring town's process.

Is Chappaquiddick part of the Edgartown STR market?

Chappaquiddick sits across the harbor from downtown Edgartown and connects by the small On Time ferry. It's a real, marketable geography for a listing description, but this report treats it as a leftover extension of Edgartown rather than a separate market with its own occupancy figures, since no independently verified Chappaquiddick-specific data exists in this pack.

Is Nantucket the same market as Edgartown?

No. Nantucket is a separate island entirely, with its own ferry system, its own town government, and its own market report elsewhere in this series. Despite both islands sitting off the Cape Cod coast and getting lumped together in casual conversation, their STR markets, regulations, and guest bases are distinct and should never be blended.

Are Martha's Vineyard Chamber visitor numbers the same as STR occupancy?

No. Chamber of Commerce estimates and Steamship Authority ridership describe overall island visitor traffic and ferry usage, not booked-night occupancy for Edgartown short-term rentals specifically. Dukes County lodging tax collection is another related but separate data point. All three are useful context, but none should be substituted for the AirROI occupancy and ADR figures cited in this report.

What is RevPAR and why does Edgartown's $341 figure matter?

RevPAR (revenue per available rental night) blends occupancy and rate into a single per-night average across the whole listing pool, and Edgartown's figure of $341 reflects its high-ADR, moderate-occupancy pattern. It's a useful cross-check for a host's own trailing-twelve performance against the town-wide benchmark, though it should be read alongside occupancy and ADR individually rather than on its own.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Most Edgartown listings still read like a generic Martha's Vineyard rental, borrowing photos and phrases that actually describe Oak Bluffs. That mismatch costs bookings before a guest ever checks the calendar.

Not sure if your Edgartown listing is priced and positioned for this town's actual $905 ADR pattern? A marketing audit shows exactly where the calendar and the copy are leaving money on the table. Send the live listing draft and the facts you can actually cite.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.