The Cape Cod real estate market has been flipped almost entirely upside down as a result of the localized effects of the nationwide economic recession. The sub prime mortgage crisis as well as the bursting of the real estate bubble has had a number of severe, adverse repercussions for the entirety of Cape Cod as well as numerous other sections of eastern Massachusetts. The Cape Cod real estate market was not damaged as heavily as the rest of the Bay State, however there were a series of negative ramifications experienced in the region. Home sales in Cape Cod have dropped in price substantially, although in a bit of hopeful news, sales of lower-priced houses continue to fuel the market and maintain moderate levels of sales.

An article in the Cape Codder published on July 21, 2009 chronicled the interesting development of Cape Cod real estate throughout the different stages of the recession. It noted that “Bottoms up and tops down-that's the news all around the Cape when it comes to housing sales. Houses priced at the lower end of the market are selling well while sales of high-priced properties have dramatically slipped.” Lynette Helms of Real Estate Associates stated further that “Now, we have a tremendous amount of properties that are selling for $300,000 and under. That didn't occur before. And with the over $ 1 million sales, the exact opposite has occurred.” This also brings the possibility that foreclosures and short sales are artificially inflating the real estate market statistics for Cape Cod.

Chief executive officer of the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors and Cape Cod and Islands Multiple Listing Service Henry DiGiacomo said that”I think there are a lot of people who have been sitting on the fence waiting the last two or three years, but they are now buying.”  A July 22nd article in the Cape Cod Times also noted that the number of foreclosure petitions on Cape Cod increased five fold in June of 2008 when compared to June of 2009. Thankfully, however, the rate of foreclosure deeds, which represent actual foreclosures, decreased substantially over the same period of time.