Podcasts

Ghost Town Cape Cod with Brent Harold and Elaine McIlroy

Is Outer Cape Cod Doomed to Become a Winter Ghost Town or is There any way Working People Can Afford to Live There?

If you’ve ever driven through the American west you may have encountered ghost towns, abandoned villages containing the remains of life once lived. Whether it’s the stretch of Route 66 from Amarillo, Texas to the New Mexico border dotted by towns by-passed by Interstate 40 or the silver and coal towns of Colorado that died when the mines closed, they stand as shadowy examples of places lost to the forces of history. According to the New York Times Outer Cape Cod may well be next. A recent assessment released by the Truro Housing Authority lays out the grisly prognosis. In Truro the resident population is expected to decline by 33% in the next 20 years; half of all of those left will be seniors; and among those only 35 will be young adults. Wellfleet’s Local Housing Partnership tells us that seasonal homes comprise two-thirds of all houses in town and that the median home price has risen to $500,000. Elaine McIlroy from Wellfleet’s Local Housing Partnership and Cape Cod Times columnist Brent Harold join Ira to talk about the high cost of owning a home on the Outer Cape and whether any but the rich will be able to live there.