Cape Cod is a place built on precious resources. Beyond just the beaches and bays that draw more than 5 million visitors each year, it’s our year-round residents who sustain our economy and shape the character of our communities.
Scientists, fishermen, health-care workers, and their children are just as essential to what makes Cape Cod the place we love as the salt marshes and kettle ponds.
Over generations, we have learned to safeguard many of the things that make this place special. We strive to protect our waters from pollution and manage our shoreline to resist erosion. We have done this for our environment, and we must now do it for our people. Without action, the rush for high-priced second homes and investment properties will push out the same folks who keep our communities alive.
In January 2020, there were 986 homes for sale in Barnstable County that cost less than $1,000,000. In January 2022, there were only 88. Year-round rentals are disappearing as homes are converted to seasonal or short-term use. Almost half of the Cape’s workforce now commutes over the bridges each day.
Ask any employer you know, and every single one of them is struggling to fill jobs simply because workers cannot find a place to live. Ask any parent of an FHS graduate, and their kid has either moved off Cape or is living in their basement.
Towns have done their best to meet the challenge. They are purchasing deed restrictions to keep housing affordable, converting unused buildings into year-round rentals, and partnering with nonprofits to build homes. These programs are effective, but they are costly, and the resources to expand them are limited.
There is currently a proposal before the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates that would address this funding gap, and we need community support to make it a reality.
We are seeking to create a 2% fee on high-value real estate transactions of over $2 million.
Towns would be able to opt-in based on a vote of their town meeting, without needing any additional special legislation. The fee would be collected by the County and then directed to the affordable and year-round housing trusts of participating towns.
With this consistent funding, our housing trusts could support a range of housing solutions, including much-needed investment in existing housing stock, expanding workforce housing, municipal projects, and mortgage assistance programs. A fund like this could generate up to $56 million a year for housing on Cape Cod—$7.8 million for Falmouth alone!
If passed by the Assembly of Delegates, this proposal will be sent to the State Legislature as a Home Rule petition. In many ways, it mirrors a similar proposal passed by Falmouth Town Meeting in April of 2024; however, it would unlock the tool for all fifteen towns on Cape Cod.
For this to come to fruition, a regional approach is critical. Passing one bill through the State House is difficult; passing fifteen separate bills for fifteen towns is nearly impossible. Falmouth, along with a dozen other towns on the Cape and Islands, has already sent a similar home rule petition to Boston, where they have been stalled for years.
By implementing this through our Cape Cod regional government, we increase the pressure on Beacon Hill and significantly improve its chances of becoming law.
The surge in home prices is primarily driven by second-home purchases and investment properties that generate significant returns for their investors. Capturing a small portion of that wealth to help preserve the year-round housing stock benefits everyone, including the same second-home owners who count on visiting a Cape Cod with staffed restaurants and functioning fire stations.
Cape Cod is facing an existential housing crisis. Without a consistent revenue source for housing, we have no chance to preserve the community that we know and love.
In local government, it only takes a few voices in the room to change the course of the discussion. The Assembly of Delegates will be taking up this proposal in the coming weeks. By speaking up at these meetings, Cape Codders have the chance to make this idea a reality, or, by staying home, to keep us on the same unsustainable trajectory. I urge my friends and neighbors in Falmouth, turn out and make yourself heard.
