Receipts by the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank from property sales on the Island fell almost eight per cent in 2006, reflecting the general slowing of the real estate market.

The figures also point to a growing polarization of a market in which higher end properties continue to sell well, while sales at the less expensive end are stalling. The greater part of land bank revenues in 2006 came from sales worth more than $2 million.

The price of the typical home on Martha's Vineyard fell for the first time in six years in 2006, as buyers left the market and sales figures dropped by nearly 30 per cent.

The median price for properties was down to around $690,000 in the third quarter of 2006, a fall of almost six per cent compared with a year earlier when the median price was around $732,000.

Patricia N. Nanon, the feisty choreographer who founded The Yard as an informal dance theatre project in 1972, next month will grant full ownership of her multimillion dollar property in the wooded hills of Chilmark to the singular Island arts colony.

A harborfront estate in Edgartown sold last week for $25.17 million, setting a new record for the sale of a single-family residence on the Vineyard

Blue Heron Farm, the sprawling gentleman's farm overlooking Tiah's Cove in Chilmark and West Tisbury that was the former residence of the late M. Anthony (Tony) Fisher and his wife Anne, was sold last week to a Mississippi couple for $20.35 million.

The buyers are William and Mollie Van Devender of Jackson, Miss.

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust and the Massachusetts Audubon Society closed on a land purchase last week that will