The value of real estate sales on Block Island and across the state continued to climb in 2001, despite downturns in other island destinations in the Northeast.

A total of $38.25 million of real estate changed hands here between January and December last year, according to figures from the Block Island Land Trust. The trust, under state legislation unique to the island, collects a 3 percent fee from all land sales to protect island land for wildlife, recreational and community uses.

The 2001 figure represents a 4 percent increase over 2000's total real estate sales of $36.65 million, and the highest amount recorded since the Land Trust began keeping records in 1986.

However, the number of sales fell a dramatic 20 percent from the previous year, to 230 house and land transactions and 48 time-share sales. That indicates that the average price of homes and land here has risen considerably.

That's true across Rhode Island. Single-family homes appreciated by 10.75 percent across the state, reports the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. More people bought more homes in the state last year than ever before, with the market buoyed by unusually high fourth-quarter sales. "We're pleasantly surprised that these sales continued to remain strong, even after the September 11 tragedy and the ensuing economic downturn," Sharon Steele, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, reported on the web site riliving.com.

Housing is getting more expensive in Nantucket also, where average and median real estate prices both went up last year.

However, Nantucket's transaction numbers fell off so steeply last year that the island saw the total value of real estate sales dive by 28 percent, or $175.6 million, reported the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror.

Martha's Vineyard has also seen a "softening" in the real estate market there, reported Landmarks Real Estate of Martha's Vineyard.