Last year brought historic high prices and record inventory lows to the Cape Cod real estate market with a near depletion of housing inventory and lack of new housing to replace properties coming off-market.

According to the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors 2021 Market Annual report, the lack of homes for sale continues to fuel rising prices. 

In 2021, 5,296 homes were sold, down 13.4% from 6,117 in 2020. More than 5,000 homes went pending in 2021 (5,274), a 16.7% decrease from the prior year, which saw 6,328 pending sales. 

The pandemic-driven hot housing market has been held back by lack of inventory, but that has not tempered prices, only sales, CCIAOR CEO Ryan Castle said.

“There is an imbalance in the market,” Castle said. “We have more demand than we have available housing and are seeing historically low amounts of new listings come on the market. This is a bad precursor for Cape Cod’s economy, as housing sales drive many other facets of the economy.”

Cape Cod homes for sale fell 54.8% at the end of 2021, with only 388 homes for sale, compared to 859 homes at the end of 2020. 

The report also found the median sales price of a home on the Cape was $570,000 in 2021, a 19% increase from the previous year, while the average home sales price was $786,120, up 18.3% from 2020.