Open Houses: C’mon down!

Realtors are still holding open houses folks, and the weather is beautiful.  Those leaves have come down seemingly all at once, but the sky today was clear blue and the weather mild.  I met a number of nice “shoppers” at an Open House that I held in Harwichport today.  All were looking for a summer place, although this adorable house has heat ( $ 429,900) and four bedrooms.  The visitors talked about vacationing in the neighborhood for decades before deciding to seriously shop this buyers’ market.  I like asking people what attracts them to a particular area of the Cape, since each town is so unique.  Most folks seem to stay with what they know from vacationing, or else they have family already in the neighborhood.  There were empty -nesters, a young couple and several families with young kids wanting to build great summer memories.  The kids ran through and picked out “their” rooms.  This home is at 16 Village Green ( lisa@capecodera.com ).

The Town of Harwich is a resort and residential community located on the south side of the Cape peninsula, with an extensive shoreline on Nantucket Sound. It was settled around 1665, and incorporated in 1694. Its early economy included agriculture and maritime industries and its history has included boom and bust cycles from the earliest days of the community.

The Town of Harwich is a resort and residential community located on the south side of the Cape peninsula, with an extensive shoreline on Nantucket Sound. It was settled around 1665, and incorporated in 1694. Its early economy included agriculture and maritime industries and its history has included boom and bust cycles from the earliest days of the community. When the whaling industry collapsed with the discovery of oil, the community’s emphasis shifted to cod fishing. By 1802, 15 to 20 ships were shore fishing and another four ships were cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador, and by 1851, there were 48 ships employing 577 men and bringing in thousands of tons of cod and mackerel.

The eventual decline of the fishing industry in Harwich by the latter part of the 19th century was caused by increases in the size of ships which eventually outstripped the shallow port’s ability to house them. Residents turned to the development of cranberry bogs and resorts for summer visitors, working side-by-side with Portuguese immigrants. The first resort hotel opened in 1880 and both the cranberry and the tourist industries remain substantial parts of Harwich’s economy in the present.  ( From www.capecodera.com )