Living in Falmouth, MA

About Falmouth

English colonists settled Falmouth in 1660, and the town was incorporated in 1686. Its center has gathered around a triangular village green since 1756, when the meeting house moved there, and late Colonial and Federal houses still frame it with the 1796 First Congregational Church on its north side. Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to "America the Beautiful", was born on Main Street in 1859. Woods Hole was raided by British forces in 1779, and the Falmouth Heights shore was bombarded by British frigates in the War of 1812. By 1872 the railroad had reached Falmouth and Woods Hole.

That rail line is now the Shining Sea Bikeway, 10.7 miles from Route 151 in North Falmouth to the Steamship Authority dock in Woods Hole, with a stretch along the water. Woods Hole is a working science village: the Marine Biological Laboratory dates to 1888 and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to 1930, around the drawbridge at Eel Pond, with Nobska Light on the point above Vineyard Sound. Along the south shore, a run of closely spaced coastal ponds and necks leads east to the Waquoit Bay reserve, while West and North Falmouth face Buzzards Bay with harbors and public beaches such as Old Silver Beach.

The town's March 2024 Housing Production Plan counts 22,817 housing units in 2020, about 86 percent of them detached single-family homes and 30 percent counted as seasonal, with an estimated 62 percent in structures built before 1980. At 8.13 percent, Falmouth's Subsidized Housing Inventory is below the 10 percent Chapter 40B goal, and the plan sets a target of at least 80 affordable units a year, with strategies including pre-approved plans for detached accessory dwellings and housing on town-owned land. Town Meeting loosened the accessory dwelling bylaw in 2018, cutting the minimum lot size from 15,000 to 7,500 square feet, and since February 2, 2025 state law has allowed one accessory dwelling of up to 900 square feet (or half the main house, if smaller) by right in single-family zoning districts. Falmouth is not on the state's MBTA Communities list, although neighboring Bourne is, as an adjacent small town.

Homes in Falmouth

Falmouth's March 2024 Housing Production Plan counts 22,817 housing units in 2020, up from 18,168 in 1990. An estimated 86 percent are detached single-family homes, and 70 percent are counted as year-round units, with 30 percent counted as seasonal; an estimated 62 percent are in structures built before 1980, and 8.13 percent count toward the state's Subsidized Housing Inventory. The plan aims to direct new housing to areas that are already developed and to maximize affordable units on town-owned land.