Counties / Massachusetts / Barnstable County

Barnstable County, MA

FIPS 25001 · population 231,668 · part of Barnstable Town, MA

$773k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$773k
▲ 1.1% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$2,725
▲ 3.0% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
4.2%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$2,422
market rent is 1.13x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+64.6%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+1.1%FHFA HPI2025+1.8%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$629k
Surveyed gross rent$1,678
Rent burden 30%+59.7%
Median year built1977
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
36.4%vacant
166,215estimated housing units
Occupied tenure18.9% renter
owner 81.1%renter 18.9%
Structure mix86.7% single-family
Single-family 86.7%20+ units 3.4%Mobile home 0.8%Other 9.1%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs96,401▲ 0.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments9,950annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,292▲ 3.9% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorLeisure and hospitality23.3% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.1%WEEKLY WAGE+3.9%Leisure and hospitality23.3%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Barnstable County presents a carry-cost-versus-income tension: at Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, a $772,767 median home value and $2,725 median monthly asking rent produce the supplied 4.23% gross yield before costs. Investors seeking income that can withstand taxes and flood-related costs should investigate the property-level expense stack; buyers relying on appreciation or a wide yield cushion should be cautious.

02Housing economics

Market asking rent rose 3.04% year over year, versus Zillow value growth of 1.14%. FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 1.8%; it supports a positive price direction, but it is neither a dollar home value nor the same vintage or method as Zillow, so the measures should not be averaged. The supplied HUD two-bedroom FMR is a $2,422 payment standard, not asking rent; measured market rent is 12.5% higher. An effective property-tax rate of 0.67% further limits how much of the gross yield remains after carrying costs.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS evidence shows active listings down 11.88% year over year, while 15.52% of listings had price reductions. That combination indicates less visible supply alongside seller concessions; it is not a closed-sale price measure or proof of buyer demand. Tax-return migration was net negative by 301 households, but inbound movers had average income $34,714 above outbound movers, separating demand volume from mover income. Non-occupants accounted for 345 of 2,990 purchase mortgages, creating identifiable buyer competition without showing their holding period or property type. Annual QCEW workplace employment was nearly unchanged, and leisure and hospitality was the largest disclosed private supersector; this is covered county workplace employment, not resident employment or an outlook.

04Risk & next checks

The dominant hazard is inland flood, and modeled expected annual building-value loss is 0.12%. That county-level estimate warrants parcel, elevation, insurance, and mitigation review rather than a property-level loss assumption. The record does not publish vacancy, achieved rents, operating expenses, insurance premiums, closed-sale comparables, or parcel flood exposure. Those omissions prevent a net-yield conclusion, a lease-up assessment, and a definitive resilience conclusion for any target asset.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Barnstable County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Barnstable Town city49.6KSouth Yarmouth CDP11.6KEast Falmouth CDP6.2KWest Yarmouth CDP6.2KYarmouth Port CDP6KEast Harwich CDP5.7KSagamore CDP4.1KFalmouth CDP4K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

40 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Barnstable Town cityIncorporated place
    49,568
  2. 02
    South Yarmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    11,552
  3. 03
    East Falmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    6,245
  4. 04
    West Yarmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    6,194
  5. 05
    Yarmouth Port CDPCensus-designated place
    5,961
  6. 06
    East Harwich CDPCensus-designated place
    5,654
  7. 07
    Sagamore CDPCensus-designated place
    4,072
  8. 08
    Falmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    3,954
  9. 09
    Northwest Harwich CDPCensus-designated place
    3,932
  10. 10
    East Sandwich CDPCensus-designated place
    3,864
  11. 11
    Forestdale CDPCensus-designated place
    3,801
  12. 12
    Dennis Port CDPCensus-designated place
    3,691
Show 28 more places
  1. 13
    Provincetown CDPCensus-designated place
    3,452
  2. 14
    Monument Beach CDPCensus-designated place
    3,277
  3. 15
    South Dennis CDPCensus-designated place
    3,135
  4. 16
    East Dennis CDPCensus-designated place
    3,062
  5. 17
    Buzzards Bay CDPCensus-designated place
    2,909
  6. 18
    Sandwich CDPCensus-designated place
    2,890
  7. 19
    North Falmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    2,838
  8. 20
    West Dennis CDPCensus-designated place
    2,556
  9. 21
    Dennis CDPCensus-designated place
    2,424
  10. 22
    Pocasset CDPCensus-designated place
    2,247
  11. 23
    Harwich Port CDPCensus-designated place
    2,238
  12. 24
    North Eastham CDPCensus-designated place
    2,085
  13. 25
    Brewster CDPCensus-designated place
    1,994
  14. 26
    Bourne CDPCensus-designated place
    1,806
  15. 27
    Harwich Center CDPCensus-designated place
    1,774
  16. 28
    Teaticket CDPCensus-designated place
    1,759
  17. 29
    Chatham CDPCensus-designated place
    1,600
  18. 30
    Orleans CDPCensus-designated place
    1,480
  19. 31
    West Falmouth CDPCensus-designated place
    1,325
  20. 32
    West Chatham CDPCensus-designated place
    1,258
  21. 33
    Woods Hole CDPCensus-designated place
    988
  22. 34
    Mashpee Neck CDPCensus-designated place
    908
  23. 35
    New Seabury CDPCensus-designated place
    726
  24. 36
    Popponesset CDPCensus-designated place
    563
  25. 37
    Seabrook CDPCensus-designated place
    530
  26. 38
    Seconsett Island CDPCensus-designated place
    168
  27. 39
    Monomoscoy Island CDPCensus-designated place
    141
  28. 40
    Popponesset Island CDPCensus-designated place
    33

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.125% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.67%

$4,239 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-301

6,208 in · 6,509 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$34,714

$147,692 arriving · $112,978 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors11.5%

345 of 2,990 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings1,127▼ 11.9% year over year
Median days on market49▼ 11.8% year over year
Listings price-reduced15.5%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 0.0% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Flood exposure, insurance, mitigation, and tax costs could reduce the pre-cost gross yield materially.
  2. MLS price reductions and net tax-return outmigration could coincide with weaker realized absorption than listing data suggest.
  3. County medians may not describe the target property’s rent, operating costs, condition, or flood exposure.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can the supplied gross yield be treated as a net operating yield?

No. It is annual market rent before costs, and the record lacks operating, insurance, and vacancy inputs.

Does HUD Fair Market Rent establish local asking rent?

No. The supplied two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, while the record separately publishes median asking rent.

Does the record establish a closed-sale value for a target property?

No. Zillow provides a median home value and Realtor.com provides MLS listing-market evidence, not a target-property closed-sale comparable.