Barnstable Homeowners Rank #1 For Holding Onto Their Properties: Study

BARNSTABLE, MA — Homeowners here are holding onto their properties longer than residents throughout the U.S., according to a new study.

Among 128 communities surveyed earlier this year, the Barnstable area ranked first in the average length of ownership – the time between a home’s purchase and a sale – reported ATTOM, a California-based real estate analytics firm.

The average span between buying and selling in Barnstable was 14.97 years. That far surpassed the second-longest duration, 12.65 years in Napa, California, and the third-longest, 12.64 years in Springfield.

Nationwide, owners who sold their homes in the first quarter of 2026 had held them for an average of 8.44 years, the data released last week shows. That period was down slightly from the 8.46 years for homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The metropolitan statistical area with the shortest average period between buying and selling was Kansas City, where owners turned over their properties after 6.9 years.

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