How It Happened.
It's a vicious cycle. Over the past 20 years, but particularly since COVID, housing prices in Truro (and the rest of the Outer Cape) have skyrocketed as retirees and seasonal vacationers have flocked to the region. In six years time (2016 to 2022), the average price of a home in Truro doubled to more than $1.2 million.
Working families have left in droves, either because they have taken advantage of high sale prices or they have retired themselves or they been forced to leave because of increased costs, including property taxes. The conversion of formerly year-round housing to more profitable short term rentals has made the problem worse. New working families have simply been priced out.
This same trend has happened throughout the entire Cape. In fact, an estimated 829 households that make less than $100K a year - in other words, working families - are moving off Cape each year. Employment has fallen for the last ten years on the Cape as working families leave and vacationers and seasonal renters move in, displacing what used to be year round-housing. More and more workers drive over the bridge to jobs on the Cape - and the Outer Cape, with its long drive times, is particularly disadvantaged.
As working families have fallen, the strain on Truro's businesses, services and city government has increased. Across the board, local employers cite high housing costs as their number one economic challenge. Employers typically must search off Cape to get employees, they pay higher wages and employees are less likely to stay over time.
The affordable housing crisis causes traffic to increase, services to decline, business to close and the towns of the Outer Cape to lose tax revenue. From policemen to medical personnel, from firefighters to service industry workers, every sector reports difficulty in hiring and retaining workers.
For decades, Truro and other Outer Cape towns, have watched this problem grow and grow. Truro has build just 25 affordable housing units in the past 30 years - and that development took 14 years.
How bad is it? - the average age of a Truro resident - is now 66.5 years compared to an average age of 42 years in 1990. Over the past thirty years, working families have mostly disappeared from Truro and most Truro residents are now either retired, seasonal vacationers or on the verge of retirement.
This is a recipe for disaster. Ask yourself, how old are the workers you interact with? How many are in their 60's? And who will take their place when they retire? Who can afford to?
But today there is new hope. Truro's citizens are demanding action, new pro-housing advocates have been elected and new rules have made it harder for the tactics of delay, delay, delay to work. The other Outer Cape towns are also taking action. And the Walsh Property represents an enormous opportunity to begin to bring working families back to the Outer Cape.
Quick Facts
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Between 2016 and 2022, the price of a home in Truro more than doubled.
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The median price of a home in Truro is over $1.2 million today.
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Working families and vulnerable seniors have been driven out - the average age of a Truro resident is now 66.5.
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Just 1.8% of Truro's housing stock is affordable housing today.
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It took 14 years to build the last affordable units in Truro.
Voices
"When talking with promising applicants, one of the first things we ask is ‘Do you have housing?’ Because that is the first concern.”
Gerry Goyette, Superintendent of Provincetown International Baccalaureate Schools.
As older employees continue to retire, a true staffing crisis is on the horizon.
'There is no doubt it is going to come, and it is going to get us good. . . . We haven’t taken the first baby steps to begin addressing it.”
Chris Easely, Chair, Nauset Regional School Committee(1)
"The consequences are evident in daily life.
When you can’t get an appointment with a doctor or dentist, it’s because many recruits never moved here.
When the vet closes at noon, and you can’t find a plumber, and therapists and home health aides have an eight-month waiting list, it’s because we can’t house people with those jobs’ incomes anymore."
Paul Benson, 2021(2)
"I don't have another word for it besides heartbreaking.
Individuals, who have lived here for their whole life, born, raised, went to school here, really people who have been invested in the heart and soul of our communities for their entire life and sometimes for generations, have to leave."
Alisa Magnotta, Housing Assistance Corporation CEO (3)
"I have lived in Provincetown and Truro for 36 years. I worked in restaurants and as a writer, teacher, and therapeutic guide.
I taught my three daughters to show up and give back, and they have settled here to raise their families, working as a preschool teacher, nurse, and head of the PTA in Truro.
Along with their friends, many of whom are involved in local politics, they are fighting for the right to live right here where they were raised."
Kathy Izzo, Truro resident (4)
Citations
(1) Housing Crisis Hits the Schools - and will Get Worse, Provincetown Independent. 8/23/23
(2) 2021 Saw a Growing Determination to Build, Provincetown Independent. 12/29/21
(3) Here's how much you need to earn to buy a house, or rent, in each Cape Cod town, Cape Cod Times, 4/1/25
(4) Letters to the Editor, Provincetown Independent. 5/2/2024