Want to buy a house on Cape Cod? Better hurry!
The Cape’s housing inventory hit a historic low: 149 houses were for sale under $1 million. Two years ago, that number topped 1,000.
What you are about to read will make no sense. Unless, that is, you are one of the tortured souls trying to buy a home on the Cape — where inventory is so low that bidders are disappointed when they lose out on properties they don’t even like.
When Becky Carvalho and her husband went to see yet another house — in this case, a three-bed, two-bath Cape in Harwich, listed at $499,000 — they were delighted with the home’s most repellent features: it was so close to Route 6 they could hear the traffic from the back yard; the beach was a schlep; and, perhaps best of all, the owner smoked and the place stunk.
After taking it all in, the couple, who have been living in a too-small rental and looking to buy for nearly two years, were giddy. “We thought that would scare people off,” said Carvalho, who runs her family’s nursery in Brewster.
Alas, it didn’t. Their bid, which included an escalation clause saying they’d go as high as $575,000, was not the winner.
If only the wall-to-wall carpet had been soaked in urine …
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