The Real Cost of Owning Property in Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Yarmouth is really three villages wearing one town name - the colonial sea-captain character of Yarmouth Port on the Cape Cod Bay side, and the Route 28 resort-motel legacy shared by West Yarmouth and South Yarmouth on the Nantucket Sound side - and the real cost of owning here can't be reduced to a single town-wide number without losing the parts that matter most to a buyer. This page lays out what current research can actually document: a single, non-split FY2025/26 tax rate, the notable absence of a residential exemption that some neighboring towns do offer, Zillow's own home-value estimate rather than a precise sale-price median, directional village-level price ranges from a single source, and the rental-registration and state excise obligations that come with renting a Yarmouth property short-term. It's also honest about what a full ownership-cost breakdown would need but that this round of research couldn't confirm at Yarmouth-specific granularity - utilities, insurance specifics, and HOA costs among them - rather than filling those gaps with invented figures.
Property Tax: A Single FY2025/26 Rate, and No Residential Exemption
Yarmouth's FY2025/26 property tax rate is $7.08 per $1,000 of assessed value, confirmed across two independent sources. Unlike some Cape towns, Yarmouth uses a single, non-split rate - there's no separate, lower commercial/industrial/personal-property classification the way Barnstable, for example, splits its residential and commercial rates. For comparison, in the same period Barnstable's rate is $6.80, Dennis is $4.29, Falmouth is $5.87, and Sandwich is $10.19 - Yarmouth sits roughly in the middle of that pack, not at either extreme.
The more consequential detail for a prospective owner is what Yarmouth doesn't have: a residential exemption. Several Cape towns - Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Mashpee, and Barnstable (whose exemption runs 20-30% depending on the year) - have adopted a residential exemption, which discounts a portion of an owner-occupied primary residence's assessed value before the tax rate is applied. Yarmouth has not adopted one. That's a real, ongoing added cost relative to towns that do offer the exemption, and it applies regardless of whether a Yarmouth property is a full-time residence, a seasonal second home, or a rental - there's no owner-occupant discount to weigh into the math here the way there would be in Mashpee or Barnstable.
Home Values: Zillow's Estimate, and Why It Isn't an MLS Median
The town-wide figure most readily available is Zillow's average home value for Yarmouth: $610,413, as of June 30, 2026. It's worth being precise about what that number is and isn't. Zillow's figure is the company's own automated valuation estimate (its "Zestimate"-style average), not a median sale price pulled from actual closed transactions in the local MLS. Current research for this page could not obtain an up-to-date, MLS-sourced median sale price for Yarmouth, so this page cites Zillow's estimate as exactly that - a third-party valuation model's average - rather than implying a precision about actual recent sale prices that the data behind it doesn't support.
Below that town-wide estimate, Yarmouth's three villages show real price variation, though the only figures available come from a single realtor-blog source using late-2025 data, and should be read as approximate, directional ranges rather than precise medians. That source describes South Yarmouth in the "low-to-mid $600s," West Yarmouth from the "high-$500s to low-$700s," and Yarmouth Port in the "low-to-mid $700s," running higher still for premium locations - consistent with Yarmouth Port's historic Route 6A character commanding a premium over the Route 28 corridor villages. None of these three ranges should be treated as a substitute for a current MLS pull on a specific property or neighborhood.
Renting It Out: Registration Requirements and the State Excise Stack
If a Yarmouth property is going to be rented - short-term, seasonal, or annual - the town requires annual rental registration through its Health Department (a 2026 Rental Registration Application is currently on file), and Yarmouth's zoning bylaw includes specific language, referenced as "Article 27" from the 2022 Annual Town Meeting, distinguishing between those three rental categories. That registration is a real, recurring administrative step and cost that a buyer planning to rent a Yarmouth property should budget time and paperwork for, separate from the tax bill itself.
On top of local registration, Massachusetts' 2019 statewide short-term rental law applies in Yarmouth as it does across the Commonwealth: a room-occupancy excise tax plus the Cape Cod & Islands Water Protection Fund fee, the same regional structure that funds water-quality and wastewater infrastructure across all of Barnstable County. This page doesn't invent a specific combined percentage or dollar total for Yarmouth, because the research behind it didn't confirm a Yarmouth-specific local-option excise rate the way it did for the state and county-wide components - what's confirmed is that the state excise and the regional water-protection fee both apply here, and that the town has held its own briefings on the requirements. Anyone modeling short-term rental income should confirm the current combined rate directly with the town or a tax professional before treating any percentage as final.
What This Page Can't Tell You
A genuinely complete "real cost of ownership" figure would also need utility costs, homeowners' and flood insurance premiums for a specific address, and any applicable condo or association fees - none of which turned up at Yarmouth-specific granularity in the research behind this page, and none of which are estimated here. What is documented and reflected above is the FY2025/26 tax rate, the confirmed absence of a residential exemption, Zillow's town-wide home-value estimate (explicitly not an MLS median), directional village-level price ranges from a single source, and the rental-registration and state/regional excise obligations that apply to a rented property. This page also could not confirm Yarmouth's FEMA Community Rating System class or discount percentage, or any Yarmouth-specific hurricane damage history, and doesn't borrow a neighboring town's numbers to fill either gap.
For a specific property's assessed value and current tax bill, contact the Yarmouth Assessor's office directly. For the current rental-registration process and Article 27's requirements for a specific rental plan, contact the Yarmouth Health Department. For an up-to-date, MLS-sourced sale-price comparison rather than Zillow's estimate or the approximate village ranges cited here, talk to a local real estate agent working the specific village in question. And for an actual insurance premium, flood-zone determination, or utility-cost estimate for a specific address, a licensed insurance agent and the relevant utility provider are the only sources that can give a number worth budgeting around. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Cape Cod Bliss's tax-rate roundup and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce (Yarmouth's FY2025/26 single, non-split tax rate of $7.08 per $1,000 assessed value, plus FY2026 comparison figures for Barnstable at $6.80, Dennis at $4.29, Falmouth at $5.87, and Sandwich at $10.19); confirmation that Yarmouth has not adopted a residential exemption, unlike Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Mashpee, and Barnstable (20-30%). Zillow's average home value for Yarmouth ($610,413, as of June 30, 2026), cited here explicitly as Zillow's own valuation estimate rather than an MLS-sourced median sale price, which current research could not obtain. Village-level price ranges from a single realtor-blog source using late-2025 data (South Yarmouth "low-to-mid $600s," West Yarmouth "high-$500s to low-$700s," Yarmouth Port "low-to-mid $700s, higher for premium locations"), presented as approximate and directional, not precise MLS medians. Yarmouth's annual Health Department rental registration requirement (2026 Rental Registration Application) and its zoning bylaw's "Article 27" language (2022 Annual Town Meeting) distinguishing short-term, seasonal, and annual rentals. Massachusetts' 2019 statewide short-term rental law, including the room-occupancy excise tax and the Cape Cod & Islands Water Protection Fund fee, which applies to Yarmouth as it does across Barnstable County. This page could not confirm a Yarmouth-specific combined STR excise percentage, Yarmouth's FEMA Community Rating System class or discount, any Yarmouth-specific hurricane damage history, or Yarmouth-specific utility, insurance, or HOA cost figures, and none of those gaps are filled in with invented numbers here. Figures change; confirm all current numbers directly with the Town of Yarmouth Assessor's office, the Yarmouth Health Department, or a licensed insurance agent before making any financial decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.