HYANNIS – Similar to much of the preceding year, December was a strong month for Cape Cod real estate sales volume and value.
Compared to last year, the volume of real estate sales in December was up by 46.4 percent from the same time in 2019, while the total value of sales was up 94.8 percent.
The median individual property sale value was up 26.7 percent from the year prior, and there was a 51.8 percent increase in the volume of mortgage activity from December 2019.
The median sale price of property in Barnstable County over $50,000 in December 2020 was $475,000.
Barnstable County Register of Deeds Jack Meade said that the month’s figures were not surprising, given the similar increases seen since the beginning of summer after a relatively slow spring.
“My expectation was that was just making up for what we missed in April in May, which tend to be very strong months for us historically, but that continued to go on for the rest of the year,” said Meade.
Meade said that previous years usually saw only about a 3 percent increase, while 2020’s volume of sales was up 14 percent and value was up by 31.4 percent.
The full year in review also saw individual sales value up by 12.1 percent and mortgage volume up by 45.5 percent, said Meade.
Despite a year dominated by ongoing pandemic and such large increases in real estate activity, Meade said that the registry has been handling the challenges well.
“Here at the registry, we never closed a single day for COVID. We haven’t had public visitors, but our staff has been able to come in with the necessary social distancing to allow us to function and handle this record volume of activity,” said Meade.
About Grady Culhane
