We’ve spilled gallons of ink this year describing how difficult the market is for buyers and speculating about the policy and housing production solutions needed to turn things around. But what about buyers who need to buy something right now? Are they out of luck? Absolutely not!! The market may be crazy, but there is a method to the [...]
Cape Cod vacation rentals had another incredible year in 2021. After many months cooped up by the pandemic, we saw exceptional bookings and many happy returning tenants who did not rent in 2020. There were a few points that we found very interesting after letting our heads clear from the heat of the [...]
Another annual newsletter, another moment of reckoning how much the pandemic has changed our lives. The only constant seems to be that rapid change and unpredictability will continue to waylay our plans….but it’s not all bad!
Based on polling data from the Cape & Islands Association of Realtors, a majority of people who purchased a home on Cape during the pandemic intend to stay full-time. While an increased year-round population poses some of its own challenges, having a new generation of ‘locals’ bringing fresh ideas, different perspectives, and tons of enthusiasm for their new home can only be a positive development! The strength of this community was one of the reasons I fell in love with this place. Now, I’m excited to pay it forward and welcome our newcomers into the fold – there’s plenty of work to be done!
Speaking of work to be done, the residents of Brewster have ours cut out for us: in a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Town elected to purchase the former Cape Cod Sea Camps properties. With frontage on both the Bay (see picture below) and Long Pond, this is the largest purchase Brewster has ever made! After a record turnout at town meeting to vote in favor of the acquisition, we are now embarking on a public engagement process to figure out what to do with the 110-ish acres. In recent years, Brewster has determined several town-wide planning priorities for the future, so I’m excited to see those manifest as we decide how to use our latest and greatest public asset.
Collaboration is the name of the game over in Yarmouth, too! At the site of the former Riverway restaurant, something new is cooking. It’s now home to the Family Table Collaborative, a self-sustaining nonprofit aimed at eliminating food insecurity on Cape. They provided over 100,000 free meals during 2021, and recently expanded their services to include rentable commercial kitchen hours, a local maker’s market/cafe, and a group meeting space! Yours truly lent her (very mediocre) skills with a paintbrush ahead of the grand opening, and it’s been a joy to watch their innovative approach be so completely embraced by the community.
The start of a new year always renews optimism for better things to come. Being an individual in the midst of a global pandemic feels overwhelming and totally out of our control, but I am heartened by seeing our local community rally around the issues that matter most to us (and there are plenty of them). Our little sandbar faces some complex challenges, but Cape Codders have always been resilient. If anything, these last two years have made us more stubborn, more dedicated to finding solutions, and more willing to create a fuss to make things happen – I can only imagine what we’ll accomplish next!
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The big question is “what about 2021?” Will the strong market hold? Will prices continue to climb? Or are we in a bubble whose collapse is imminent? The short answer is, as always: “we have no idea.” But for a long answer, here are some factors we see swimming around in the crystal ball on Agnes’ [...]
There are no two ways about it. 2020 was a remarkable year for the Cape Real Estate market. We started off the year in familiar territory with January and February showing roughly the same level of market activity as in recent years. But when the COVID pandemic took hold in March we saw a sudden slump in both pending sales and new [...]
2020 was an unusual year to say the least and the vacation rental market on Cape Cod was no exception. Local hotels and motels suffered as many vacationers were either unable to travel or reluctant to be in shared spaces. However, when comparing our experience as short-term vacation rental brokers to the hotel industry, we found the comfort [...]
What a year it’s been since I sat down to write for our last annual newsletter! Then, I was just settling into my new position here at Chatelain Real Estate and was looking forward to a wonderful year. What’s that they say about ‘the best laid plans’? While the Cape has been experiencing a record-breaking real estate market, many people and [...]
We get a lot of questions from folks interested in the issue of housing affordability here on the Cape, so we thought we’d give a quick overview of the issue and some of the potential solutions being discussed. [...]
Are you interested in the health of the Cape Cod real estate market? How it compares to Massachusetts' real estate trends? We have had some time to review the market data from 2019 and have some interesting findings to report. We'll take a few key points and break them [...]