CAPE COD – Lindsey O’Connell, a realtor with Orleans Village Properties, lives in Chatham “on a cul-de-sac with eight homes. I am one of two year-round residents on the street,” she said.
Joe Arnao, area manager for the Lower Cape and the Outer Cape for William Raveis Real Estate, lives in Sandwich on a street 10 minutes from the Cape Cod Canal bridges. “We’re not near the beach by any means,” he said. “This is a family neighborhood.”
And yet there are four seasonal homes on his street, he said. “To me, it seems kind of weird,” said Arnao, who has been on the same street for 26 years.
This is a story about the housing crisis on Cape Cod as seen from the perspective of a handful of real estate agents across the Cape. Cape Cod Wave Magazine was curious as to what agents are seeing and what they think can be done to improve the situation. So we asked.
The vacant homes are “not just waterfront homes, but all over in all kinds of neighborhoods.” – Laura Clements, Cove Road Real Estate, Orleans
“There are some entire streets that are empty this time of year,” said O’Connell of winter. “I’d say 90 percent of the homes in Chatham are unoccupied summer residences,” she said.
The vacant homes are “not just waterfront homes, but all over in all kinds of neighborhoods,” said Laura Clements, owner/broker of Cove Road Real Estate in Orleans.
“The housing crisis on the Cape means rentals.”
While there are homes all over Cape Cod that are empty most of the year, there are also people on Cape Cod desperate for a place to rent.
“For me, the housing crisis on the Cape means rentals,” said Ned Chatelain, owner of Chatelain Real Estate of South Dennis. “There are almost no rentals at all on Cape Cod,” he said.
“Here in Provincetown,” said Bob O’Malley, broker/owner of Beachfront Realty in Provincetown, “it’s all history. We were the canary in the coal mine. “The canary is dead. The coal mine has exploded.”
The situation is so bad in Provincetown, he said, the town has “made it a priority. We created a town position [to deal with the crisis] at the highest executive level of the town.”
A condominium in Provincetown
The situation is certainly different, or perhaps in different stages, in the 15 towns of the Cape. But agents agree that the housing situation, with its many moving parts, is getting worse.
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