Orleans, Massachusetts.
Typical home $1,075,537 (+3.6% in a year). Barnstable Town, MA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$3,321 (+143%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $37,442 +4%
- $1,038,095$1,075,537 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $235,120 +28%
- $840,417$1,075,537 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Orleans$5,645
- Massachusetts$3,439
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Orleans, MA rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Orleans, Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Orleans, in Barnstable County, had 1,767 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $78,359 a year and half less, against $95,241 across Barnstable County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Barnstable County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Barnstable County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Orleans is a small community on Cape Cod, with a year-round population that is modest in size. Household incomes here run below the county's, and the typical home is priced well above what most of the country pays. Winters are cold and summers are mild, with rain and melted snow spread through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in professional and business services, shops, and restaurants and hotels. Across Barnstable County, some of the largest workplaces are Cape COD Hospital, Barnstable Schools and Cape Air. The commute for most people is short.
Things to do. Nauset Beach is a beach a short drive away, and Cape Cod National Seashore, a protected area, is also a short drive from town. Closer in, Nickerson State Park lies in or beside town, offering wooded protected land, and the French Cable Station, a museum, sits in or beside town as well.
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- 822households
- 14%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
What people in Barnstable County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Barnstable County had 96,491 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 26°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 64°. About 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Chatham Municipal Airport weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Barnstable County
- Cape COD HospitalGeneral hospital1,984FTE
- Barnstable SchoolsSchool district884FTE
- Cape Air / Nantucket Air ServiceAir passenger carriers, scheduled659
- Falmouth HospitalGeneral hospital613FTE
- Falmouth SchoolsSchool district558FTE
- Captital Properties/Chatham Bars InnAuto courts, lodging505
- Cape Cod Community CollegeTwo-year college480
- Dennis-Yarmouth SchoolsSchool district466FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 156 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 18,262 people in all across the county; Orleans has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Orleans’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Barnstable County and the Barnstable Town, MA metro.
Orleans home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Orleans$1,075,537
- Massachusetts$655,219
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Orleans listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Orleans25.42%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Orleans49
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Orleans18
Zip codes with a Orleans address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Orleans — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.