Living in Barnstable, MA

About Barnstable

Bartholomew Gosnold explored this shore in 1602, and English settlers arrived on June 4, 1638, making Barnstable one of the first towns of Plymouth Colony; it was incorporated in 1639. The north side still follows the Old King's Highway, Route 6A, through Barnstable village and West Barnstable, where the 1644 house that forms the original part of the Sturgis Library is the oldest building housing a public library in the United States, and the Olde Colonial Courthouse recalls a 1774 protest led by James Otis and Samuel Adams. Behind them, Sandy Neck runs about six and a half miles along Cape Cod Bay, backed by salt marsh, with Sandy Neck Light at its tip.

The south side faces Nantucket Sound. Hyannis holds the historic Main Street, a large natural harbor and the ferry docks, along with Barnstable Municipal Airport and the Hyannis Transportation Center. West along Route 28, Centerville reaches Craigville Beach, Osterville keeps the Crosby boatbuilding story in its historical museum, and Cotuit sits on Cotuit Bay, the home water of the Cotuit oyster. Inland, Marstons Mills takes its name from Benjamin Marston's fulling mill and keeps a herring run, kettle ponds and a grass airfield dating to 1929. Hyannis is also home to Cape Cod Hospital, the largest medical facility on Cape Cod, and the Cape Cod Central Railroad runs seasonal excursions from there to Sandwich and Sagamore.

Barnstable's 2025 Housing Production Plan counts detached single-family homes as 84.8 percent of residential properties and at least 23 percent of housing units as second homes; rental housing is 24 percent of the stock. Multifamily and mixed-use buildings are allowed by right on only two percent of the town's net land area, and accessory dwelling units were recently allowed by right in all zoning districts. The town had 1,485 units on the state's Subsidized Housing Inventory, 6.73 percent of its 2020 year-round units, against a 10 percent goal. In Hyannis, the Town Council approved new Downtown Hyannis zoning on February 2, 2023, replacing the Hyannis Village districts with seven form-based and hybrid districts that allow buildings of up to four stories and are meant to allow compact housing by right. Barnstable is not one of the 177 MBTA communities.

Homes in Barnstable

Barnstable's 2025 Housing Production Plan executive summary counts detached single-family homes as 84.8 percent of residential properties, and reports that at least 23 percent of the town's housing units are second homes. Hyannis holds about one-fifth of all housing units; single-family homes are 59 percent of its units, and most of its units are rented. The plan names town-owned sites in Marstons Mills, among others, for new year-round housing.