Best PlacesBarnstable, MA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Barnstable metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Barnstable ranks 45th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Its strengths are health care access and fast internet. The cost shows up in an overheated housing market, empty homes, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Barnstable metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Barnstable
The towns and districts of the Barnstable metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Forestdale & Pocasset
Fewer homes sit empty, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
East Sandwich, Provincetown & Dennis
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Brewster, Orleans & Eastham
More residents vote, though homes cost more.
East Falmouth, Mashpee & West Falmouth
Schools score higher.
Buzzards Bay, Sandwich & Sagamore Beach
It is noisier.
Centerville, South Yarmouth & Marstons Mills
Northwest Harwich, Dennis Port & South Dennis
Tree cover is thinner.
Barnstable Town, Cotuit & Osterville
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Barnstable shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Barnstable's strengths and weaknesses
Barnstable ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Health care access is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Fast internet and low crime follow.
The one real hole is an overheated housing market, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and childcare costs also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Barnstable ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of metro areas
Where Barnstable ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,514 a month, better than only 6% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 20% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Barnstable
A household needs to earn about $169,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Barnstable home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,622, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Barnstable's effective rate of 0.69%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Barnstable
Barnstable runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Barnstable.
Who works in Barnstable, and how
Work in Barnstable centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Barnstable
Barnstable has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 72% of metro areas. The coast is about 4 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Barnstable and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Barnstable growing, and who is moving in?
Barnstable has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boston, MA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Barnstable go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Barnstable, month by month
Barnstable sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 57° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Barnstable
The nearest airport, Cape Cod Gateway, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 59 miles away.
The best schools in and around Barnstable
Schools across Barnstable average a B, better than 72% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Centerville ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Barnstable United Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
- West Barnstable ElementaryC− · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Barnstable HighC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Barnstable school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Barnstable measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Barnstable against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Barnstable suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 17% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 56% of metro areas and health care access beats 100%.
Common questions about living in Barnstable
Is Barnstable a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Barnstable ranks 45th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, fast internet, and low crime, and lowest on an overheated housing market and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Barnstable expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $657,536. The overall cost of living runs about 17% above the national average. Set against a $101,622 median income, cost of living beats 55% of metro areas.
Is Barnstable safe?
Yes, Barnstable is safer than 99% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $183 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Barnstable?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 25. That works out to about 96 pleasant days a year, more than 56% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Barnstable?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Forestdale & Pocasset, East Sandwich, Provincetown & Dennis, and Brewster, Orleans & Eastham. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Barnstable good for families?
Schools beat 72% of metro areas, crime safety beats 99%, and childcare runs $1,514 a month.
Is Barnstable good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 55% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 99% of metro areas. About 17% of workers already work from home.
Compare Barnstable with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Barnstable. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Barnstable represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Barnstable detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Barnstable: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Barnstable: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Barnstable: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Barnstable: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Barnstable detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.