Something unusual happened last Sunday at West Dennis Beach in the Nantucket Sound, town of Dennis, Massachusetts. The parking lot was full by 8 am.
Popular spots such as Mayflower and Corporation’s beaches, eight miles north of Cape Cod, are always packed early with wealthy summer foreigners from Boston and New York. But at West Dennis Beach, a paradise for families and locals known for its laissez-faire atmosphere, anyone can get parking at any time.
Today, West Dennis Beach and Mid Cape, a middle-class town that includes Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Dennis, suddenly turned bright red.
This is a story that happened throughout the United States. Even relatively wealthy people were forced to consider options as the pandemic pushed prices into the stratosphere at luxury vacation destinations such as the Hamptons, Nantucket, Palm Beach, and Cape Cod. The result was once an affordable and even low-market real estate boom.
Today, driving along Central Cape along Route 28, you’ll find candy shops, mini-golf, and family-owned restaurants, rather than hedgerows and country clubs. Nevertheless, you need a deep pocket to stay there.
According to the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realters, the average selling price of single-family homes in central Cape in the first quarter of 2022 was $ 650,000 (a leap from the $ 590,000 already swelled in the same quarter last year). More than half of total sales exceeded the asking price, and one-third of total sales were closed in cash. In addition, compared to the first quarter of last year, the number of single-family homes listed for less than $ 500,000 was about half. Inventory is at historically low levels.
For your average Joe, it’s tall and seeks a second home.
But for those who are priced from the towns of Cape Cod with deep pockets like Wellfleet and Chatham, or the Poscher markets like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, Central Cape is a valuable market.
“Five years ago, Cape Cod always sold about 2,700 detached homes. When I first started, there were about 7,200 detached homes for sale,” said Cape Cod’s lifetime resident. Mike Crow says. Real estate agent with William Laveys of Yarmmouth Port. “We used to take people on a marathon buyer trip, seeing eight homes in the morning and eight homes in the afternoon, spending about 15 minutes each. Show buyers three or four. If you can, you’ll be lucky. “
Due to very low inventory, some agents sell the same house a year or two apart. Karras sold the home for $ 299,000 on behalf of the seller of 9 Orchid Lane in West Yarmouth in November 2018.
Two years later, on behalf of the 2018 buyers for sale in October 2020. Selling prices rose 51% in two years and closed at $ 450,000.
In another example, Karras represented the seller of Dennis Port’s 11 Chase St., which sold for $ 595,000 in October 2020. In 2021, the same property sold for $ 825,000 (at the time with another agent), an increase of 39%.
Cassie Fruggiero-Lyons, a compass agent and local companion to the Cape, saw one of her listings in Dennis receive eight offers. Before the house hit the market, it eventually sold for $ 200,000 rather than demanding $ 1.51 million.
“It was all through word of mouth, and only through our internal compass network and neighborhood association,” Fruggiero-Lyons said. “This market is crazy. Often things go on within a day and everything is sold in multiple offers.”
The same is true for the rental market in the region.
“By February, most of the rental market will be booked,” said Fruggiero-Lyons. “By the end of this summer, we almost need to plan a rental for next summer. Investors are coming in because we can rent something at the highest price and book it all summer.”
“By the end of this summer, we almost need to plan a rental for next summer. Investors are coming in because we can rent something at the highest price and book it all summer.”
Compass Agent Cassie Fruggiero-Lyons
The boom in central Cape is welcomed by the locals.
Karen Mumford, who works at Pretty Picky Properties in Brewster, Massachusetts, finds something interesting happening in a normal four-bedroom home across South Yarmouth.
“A woman across the street died and her daughter inherited the house,” Manford said. “A few years ago, the house was sometimes rented for $ 1,500 a week. Her daughter refurbished the house instead of selling it, rented it all summer, and she rented it for it a week. I’m getting $ 5,500. “
The area is not known for its flashy amenities, but the influx of new cash has brought some new perks to the area.
Lark Hotels, which owns real estate in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Nantucket, California, will open the Bluebird Dennis Port Inn in central Cape on June 3. Last November, it is a New York company that also owns EOS Investors. Attractive L’ErmitageBeverlyHills — Acquired Red Jacket Resorts for an undisclosed amount. The resort’s portfolio is primarily sold to middle-class families, with $ 30 million planned for refurbishment after this summer season. EOS has also acquired Wequassett Resort and Golf Club (in the center of Harwich next to the Cape) for $ 102 million.
Tom Barnes, Managing Director of EOS, said:
During the pandemic, Dennis Port’s Pelham House Resort raised $ 20 million from a group of silent investors and used the money to create a Pelham Hospitality Group consisting of a refurbished main hotel, an adjoining event space and a rooftop restaurant. Transformed into. Overlooking the Nantucket Sound. They also acquired two small inns (R’s Peram and Main Peram) and a nearby farm that supplies produce to the resort’s restaurants to accommodate the overflow when the main resort is sold out.
Today, Pelham’s two-story oceanfront event facility is one of Cape’s most sought-after wedding venues.
“I don’t want to be a company. John McCarthy, managing partner and son of the first founder of Pelham House, said:” It took me a while to get used to the changes, but The product is worth it. We are receiving a higher level of service that we may not have had in central Cape a few years ago. “