BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) – When Leon Michelove sits back to enjoy the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, it’s obvious to him something about the audience has changed.

“All of the hair is gray,” said the 75-year-old Barnstable resident. “When we started here 10 years ago, that was not the case.”

Since 1990, the median age on the scenic arm jutting out from the mainland has risen about seven years, from around 39 to just under 46. Nationwide, the median age of 36.4 rose about half as much during the same time, according to Peter Francese, director of demographic forecasts at the New England Economic Partnership.

If the trend continues, this region faces crushing costs for health care of the aging, and fewer workers for an already stretched pool of employees.

Some Cape Codders also fear their historic, hardworking communities will become exclusive places for the wealthy, similar to nearby Nantucket.

“I don’t think you can call any community healthy that can’t support all generations of a family,” said Maggie Geist of The Association to Preserve Cape Cod. “The Cape is well past that point.”

About a quarter of Cape residents are over 65, compared to about 13 percent nationwide.

Another telling statistic shows the Cape had 5,000 more deaths than births from 2000 to 2006, the sixth-highest percentage loss in the nation. That puts the Cape ahead of retiree-laden Florida’s Pinellas, Volusia and Pasco counties.

Part of the problem stems from the Cape’s shorelines and landscapes that draw visitors and inspire famous residents such as the Kennedys. President John F. Kennedy once said: “I always go to Hyannisport to be revived, to know again the power of the sea, and the Master who rules over it, and all of us.”

The Cape capitalized on that natural beauty in the 1980s by building up tourism to replace the flagging fishing and farming industries, and some of the tourists were smart enough to buy second homes.

Now those visitors are retired and moving in. From 1980 to today, the population boomed from 148,000 to 225,000.

“It’s kind of the unintended consequences of a robust tourism economy,” said Wendy Northcross, executive director of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

Many Cape towns, concerned about preserving their character and natural resources, reacted with policies aimed at curbing development.

But that had the effect of pushing prices too high for younger families with children. From 2000 to 2006, about 10,000 people aged 35-44 and their children left the Cape, Francese said.

Towns also required new houses be built on large lots to reduce crowding; Barnstable requires two-acre lots. Towns also began preserving open space, buying it with help from a land bank funded by a portion of local real estate taxes.

; just 17 percent of Cape land is still unprotected or undeveloped, according to the Cape Cod Commission.

Those restrictions did keep areas of the Cape free from development, but they also limited new housing construction and meant the houses that were built were larger and more expensive. Since 1997, the Cape’s median single family home price has tripled to about $350,000.

Local salaries did not keep pace with the rising prices. More than a third of Cape jobs are in the relatively low-paying retail or food service and accommodations industries that support tourism.

Even middle income workers are finding the Cape unaffordable.

In an interview at the Barnstable senior center, where the second major expansion in less than a decade is under way, Michelove recalls speaking to an emergency medical technical who was forced by high housing prices to move off the Cape to Plymouth.

“That’s scary when the people who take care of you physically are … miles away and over a big bridge that sometimes closes when the weather is bad,” Michelove said.

None of the Cape’s problems is catching planners by surprise, said Leslie Richardson, economic development officer of the Cape Cod Commission, a regional land use planning and regulatory agency. She questioned whether the Cape was aging as rapidly as Francese has warned, and said demographic experts have challenged the reliability of the Census population estimates that Francese uses.

“This isn’t a sudden, urgent crisis,” Richardson said. “We’re still not anywhere near Nantucket.”

Work is underway to diversify the economy and make the Cape more affordable to younger workers and families, Richardson said. For instance, economic development groups are pushing the renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth as a base for expanding renewable energy businesses and research.

There’s also a move to change zoning laws to allow denser development so towns can create village centers that allow more lower-cost housing units.

However, change comes slowly on the Cape, which is governed by 15 independent town bodies. It may also be difficult to sell denser development on a population that’s been focused on stopping development.

Helen Perron, 73, moved to her second home on the Cape in 1994 and has enjoyed an active retirement with her husband Ed. She said that while everyone enjoys being with people their age, no one wants to see the Cape swing too far out of balance.

“You don’t want to be with just gray-haired people,” she said.

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On the Net:

Association to Preserve Cape Cod: http://www.apcc.org/

Cape Cod Commission: http://www.capecodcommission.org/

AP-ES-01-06-08 1150EST