Andrea Bogomolni lives in Falmouth with her two dogs and six chickens. Sitting on her porch on a late afternoon in June, she says she’s grateful to have landed where she is.
"But," she said, "it took a long time to get there."
CAI met Bogomolni 20 years ago, when she was struggling to make a living in the place she loved. At the time, she was couch surfing while working multiple jobs as an early-career scientist in Woods Hole. And she was considering leaving the Cape. Not because she wanted to. Because she simply couldn’t afford to stay.
Here’s how she described her dilemma to CAI back then:
"Is it worth staying and not having a place to live that I can afford on my own? I mean, I’m almost 30. I’d like to have a house or have someplace I can call home, but I can’t do it here."
Bogomolni did end up leaving the Cape. She went to the University of Connecticut to earn her PhD. But then she came back. She said it was only with the help of friends and family, a serious relationship, and an economic downturn, that she was finally able to buy a home here.
Now Bogomolni pays it forward by offering up space in her home for young professionals struggling to find permanent housing. It worries her that the problem has just gotten worse.
"I know there's been some really interesting conversations about land for conservation versus land for housing, kind of figuring out where that balance is in a place that doesn't have a lot of land to use," she said.
And she's right. The Cape Cod Commission completed a comprehensive housing study in 2024. According to Executive Director Krisy Senatori, incomes have not been increasing at the same rate as housing costs. Senatori said, in the past seven years, median home prices jumped about 80%, while average wages increased less than 30%.
"So, to affordably purchase that median sales priced single-family home, a household would need to have an income of just under $220,000," Senatori said. "And today, the median household income on the Cape is just over $95,000. So a pretty significant mismatch there."
Regional experts point to the COVID-19 pandemic as the tipping point, when the housing problem became a crisis.
Like homes for sale, year-round rentals are both expensive and hard to come by. Senatori said that’s because over one-third of the Cape’s housing stock is used seasonally, including just under 20-thousand short-term rentals.
"This does present an opportunity, though," she said, "to try to increase the year-round housing stock by converting short-term rentals to year-round housing."
Senatori and others point to promising programs in Colorado ski communities like Aspen and Vail. One model provides grants to short-term rental owners to rent their properties year-round. Another program incentivizes deed restrictions for year-round occupancy.
Paul Niedzwiecki, president and CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, explained, "They have what's called the inDEED Program out there, and so they will actually purchase year-round deed restrictions on homes. And, I think the last time I heard they were paying between $75,000 to $100,000 for, a deed restriction."
Niedzwiecki said the program also benefits first-time homebuyers who, in exchange for restricting their deed to year-round housing, can get a chuck of money toward their down-payment at closing. Importantly, he says, these programs don’t involve building.
"On the Cape, we can't build our way out of the housing problem," he said. "You know, we're not Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eight-six percent of the land on the Cape is either protected or developed."
Niedzwiecki said that adding accessory dwelling units – or ADUs – to existing homes are another piece of the puzzle. But, he said that current high construction costs are prohibitive.
He and Senatori agree there is no one way out of the region’s housing crisis. And housing solutions need to be balanced with other regional challenges, such as infrastructure needs, water quality and coastal resiliency.
Twenty years ago Andrea Bogomolni was in crisis. Today, at 49, her advice to young people struggling to work and stay on the Cape is to be involved in their local community and help find solutions to those challenges.
"I’ve learned that there’s a lot of power behind people and policies and ways to make things better," she said. "That it doesn’t have to be the way it’s always been."
And while it’s still a struggle to stay afloat on the Cape, Bogomolni says, for her, the struggle is worth it.
