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| LIVING IN HYANNIS - 4/8/2012
I am a native Bostonian and we lived on the Cape for some 20 years and then moved for work to Virginia for ten years and are now back and living in Hyannis, Massachusetts which we have been familiar with for years. Frankly, it is an interesting town. From about June to December with the summer tourists and then the Holiday season life is fairly busy. The Summer crowd is really not that bad and mainly encountered by those commuting for a vacation or a get away from areas beyond the Cape...the traffic coming on and off the Cape can be ugly on the weekend...you have been forewarned so plan to come mid-week. The best season is actually from mid-May to the end of June...then the mobs really come in but it can be a festive time and I have never had contention with the tourists trying to get their Cape memories in for the coming Winter.
Housing can be absurd and is overpriced considering the lack of any realy well paid jobs here. Lot of off Cape money and empty second homes abound in the Winter months..status to have a home on the Cape...a reward for slogging it out for 40 years. Their are some good apartments about and the living otherwise is not that expensive as the pace after the summer has ended is a bit funky and quiet and even mysterious. You are about 25 miles out into the Atlantic and it does have affect on your psychic. Some deal with the winter season: (September to May(Spring comes in strong in mid-May not in March or April where it barely shows its face)....with drink and their is a continuous drug problem but the area is not violent and crime is not a big deal...actually mainly very quiet and peaceful for many months.
Boston is but 85 miles away and public transportation gets you to downtown Boston in about and hour and half.
It is a good place to live and it does have a bit of romance and eeriness to it..at times it feels like the 1940s'. As stated work is and has always been pretty lousy here as to opportunity and pay so either bring your money or simply live a low key life..you can still enjoy the beaches even in the winter and the town of Hyannis is a piece of cake to manuever around for many months of the year. The tourists are but chasing their summer time memory to hold them over for the winter so I do not begrudge them.
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| no golf in winter - 3/7/2011
It is a falicy that we can golf year round here on cape cod. The fall is nice but the winter is long.Summer starts June 15 and end on Labor day. Summer is to short and the winter drags on with no real spring.
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| Cotuit, MA, Cape Cod - 2/15/2011
We have lived in Cotuit for years and find it to be one of our favorite locations for relaxation and creative inspiration. Located on the south side of Cape Cod, the quality of life is excellent and the proximity to shopping and the rest of the cape is perfect.
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| Cotuit - 8/13/2010
One of the 7 villages that makes up the Town of Barnstable, Cotuit has retained much of the charm of a Cape Cod gone by the wayside. It's lovely to drive around the village and see the beautiful old Cape Cod homes. The beach is small, but always clean and family friendly. It's a wonderful place to live, but it's not inexpensive. Summers can be trying, but I tell myself that I'm lucky to live in a place where all these peoples want to visit. That works until about mid August.
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| Charming - 1/12/2010
Not really. Cape Cod has incredible natural beauty. Having grown up there I can say that some of the population is beautiful as well. For some, this place works. For others, it can really suck. There is a lot of abuse (drugs, alcohol, and probably the associated human abuse that spins off of that). It is an un-real place in that during the summer months the place is inundated with people from all over the world, many of whom are there to escape their reality, party, lose themselves among people they don't really know, act like ass holes and such. In the winter, the place shuts off and the locals begin house party season or they move to other parts of the country to find work. If you own a business, some types of businesses in some towns, I say good luck dealing with the Historic Preservation Maniacs. My whole family lives there and I am moving out to Oregon. I can't subject my kids to the insanity of the place. Too bad, because it really is quite beautiful apart from all the BS.
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| housing values - 1/13/2008
There are no starter homes available for young couples in this area. Prices are dropping but, they have a long way to go to afordability.
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| Dwindeling middle class is being replaced by the w - 1/17/2007
The Cape has become a place that is outrageously expensive to live. The housing situation is out of hand. I purchased a home in Mashpee in 1994 and sold it in 1999 when I relocated. The same home is three times what I initially paid. Most homes have only three bedrooms and no garage. And for that, you will pay in the upper $300s. Good luck getting home owners insurance without paying top dollar. There are no values on the Cape. Even going to the local movie theater is now $8.50 and climbing....
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| Olde Cape Cod is no bargain anymore! - 7/12/2006
Like the song of the 50s and 60s..."If your fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there, you sure to fall in love with Olde Cape Cod..." The lyrics are still true, lots of very protected sand dunes, quaint little villages (although some are no longer quite so quaint), and yes it is a great place to be...beautiful, picturesque, wonderfully detached from the rest of Massachusetts (except for politics, unfortunately), and still the place I call home. But alas, I can no longer afford to buy a home here...prices have caught up with Boston, Fairfield County, and Metro NYC...Gone are many of the little cottages by the sea, replaced by McMansions with 2-3 car garages, central air, 4 bedrooms or more and 3 or more bathrooms.) For those how bought before 1999 there is plenty of equity as housing prices have skyrocketed with the worst fixer-uppers in Hyannis going for well over $200,000 now.
The employment situation is terrible if you are looking for stable year-round employment with benefits which makes living here more difficult. Due to property values rising, real estate taxes are rising faster! Rents are only slightly less expensive than in Boston, and climbing steadily.
But still it is my dear sweet Olde Cape Cod, and I love it here and would hate to be forced to leave. However there must be somewhere as nice but far less expensive...at least I can dream!
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