The prices at the Jersey Shore seem reasonable compared to a lot of home on the Outer Banks. The market says differently.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/...

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Interesting article about Brigantine. My grandparents bought a little house there in 1962. If it weren’t for visits to see my elderly aunt and uncle who live in that same house I would NEVER set foot in the jersey shore. The only way on and off the island is a nightmare maze through a bunch of casinos that usually takes about 10 years off my life.
Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey.

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"Vacationers are now opting for cheaper rentals abroad including to exotic locations like Aruba, North Carolina, or even Italy for less than the cost of a Jersey Shore stay."

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My grandparents owned a beach box in Strathmere NJ, between Sea Isle City and Ocean City. Once of the nicest towns with minimal development and decent sized lots (needed for septic) compared to other towns. They bought in the sixties after a significant winter storm and sold the house in the 1990s. All of the grandkids (myself included) were unhappy when our grandmother sold the place after our grandfather passed. Non of our parents wanted to take on the house, citing taxes and upkeep.

When I started looking for a beach house about a decade ago, that little beach box that sold in the mid $200k in 1994 was now well over a million and destined to be a tear down. Taxes were crazy high, the rental season is short, and the math didn’t seem to work out for making a ROI as a rental. Having moved from PA to VA as a kid, OBX later became our beach of choice and was ultimately where we ended up buying.

As home prices rise and rise, rents will follow. Alternatively, as rental demand decreases and decreases, investment value will decrease and so will real estate prices. The delta in between is non-renting beach owners. There’s been a lot of boomers who’ve bought in the outer banks and either stopped renting, or bought with the intention of not renting, reducing supply. As those boomers start to divest assets like beach homes, I think you’ll start to see prices drop in comparison to the rest of the real estate market as gen x and millennials look to buy as an investment.

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"Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey."

I think one could say the same about the area of the Outer Bank, between the Wright Bridge and Whalebone Junction.

BTW.... have you been to Stone Harbor, Avalon, Ocean Grove, Sea Girt, Cape May, Long Beach Island, Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park, Bay Head?

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The furthest north on the Jersey shore I’ve ever been is Barnegat.
I don’t think still considered south Jersey but I’m not sure.
To lots of us anything from Burlington county up is north Jersey.

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My sister-in-law just had an offer accepted in a bidding war for a 30 year old 4 bedroom side by side, 1 1/2 blocks from the beach ( basically 2 homes connected together, so you get half) in Sea Isle City, NJ. House listed at $925,000 and sold for $1.125 million. They will have to do some major upgrades and they feel lucky to have gotten it. You could not pay me to vacation there, wall to wall people, traffic, concrete and if you sit on the deck, all you see are electric and cable lines and you don't even know that you are at the beach

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^ Exactly!
My son and his wife bought a 3 bedroom condo in Ventnor a couple of years ago. I tried to be positive about it, but it was wall to wall cars and concrete. They were on a one way street with parking on both sides that was almost impossible to navigate in our pick-up truck. If you were on the beach (where you could actually see some sand) and looked up the beach the only thing to see were the skyscraping casinos of Atlantic City.
Thankfully they sold it and made some money on it.
When I was young the Jersey shore wasn’t too bad but it’s just awful now.
Unfortunately I see the same thing starting to happen on the Banks.

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When my parents bought their house in the ‘80’s one of the things I loved was that there were no sidewalks anywhere.

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You can always tell when articles are using Airbnb or AirDNA's scraping tools to talk numbers of rentals and not the actual licensing and tax records.

Are there more vacation rentals than 5 years ago? Yes. Are there as many more as they say? No.

What has increased notably is self management and co-hosting and a move away from strictly weekly rentals to flex stays as well.

A lot of people mistake rentals being newly listed on Airbnb for being newly listed for rent.

If you have to see blacktop leaving Brigantine, you're making a left when you should be going right after the bridge.

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"Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey."

I think one could say the same about the area of the Outer Bank, between the Wright Bridge and Whalebone Junction.

BTW.... have you been to Stone Harbor, Avalon, Ocean Grove, Sea Girt, Cape May, Long Beach Island, Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park, Bay Head?

Yup. Lots of great places on the Jersey shore, just now all unaffordable for most. Once I took a buddy of mine who was up from Maryland to island Beach State Park the fish on a summer night in the middle of the week.... Drove on the beach parked, he got out of the truck and looked around and said something effect if you've got to be kidding me, he could never imagine a place like that exists in New Jersey.... Not a soul in sight, just a flash of the lighthouse in the distance, sound of the waves and hints of light from the boardwalk about 7 miles north.

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Brigantine? Isn't that where all the blackjack dealers at Harrah's live? I've never been there.

I had to look up Avalon after seeing it mentioned. Nice looking little town. Too many curbs and sidewalks for me, that's on me.But I found out how they keep the crowds out.

"2024 Avalon beach tags carry a pre-season price of $32 until May 31st, 2024. As of June 1st, 2024, the price for a seasonal tag will be $40. Avalon and Stone Harbor have a reciprocal agreement with the use of beach tags. This season, the cost of a daily beach tag will be $8; the cost of a weekly tag, $17. No refunds are offered for a beach tag purchase under any circumstance. Beach tags are not required for children under the age of 12."

That's good, beach tags are not required for children under 12.

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I think Wildwood is still free.
The rest you have to pony up.
And usually have to pay to park.
Sheeze

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"Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey."

I think one could say the same about the area of the Outer Bank, between the Wright Bridge and Whalebone Junction.

BTW.... have you been to Stone Harbor, Avalon, Ocean Grove, Sea Girt, Cape May, Long Beach Island, Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park, Bay Head?

Why bother, they don’t care about the truth just their built in hatred

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"Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey."

I think one could say the same about the area of the Outer Bank, between the Wright Bridge and Whalebone Junction.

BTW.... have you been to Stone Harbor, Avalon, Ocean Grove, Sea Girt, Cape May, Long Beach Island, Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park, Bay Head?

Why bother, they don’t care about the truth just their built in hatred

I don't know Mike. I just get sick of the New Jersey bashing by folks who generalize about the shore based on the few places they have been. Granted charging to get on a beach is a crime. Many towns are overbuilt, but don't look much different than KD, KDH, or NH. One huge difference is many of NJ's oceanfront town are more year-round than seasonal, or even total year-round. NJ shore is located within a couple hours drive of 2 of the largest cities in the US.....quite different than the Outer Banks. Yes beaches are crowded.....but try to park in say Southern Shores...of course the beaches are less crowded because you can't park. We have our faults just like North Carolina.

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I know nothing about New Jersey, but I follow a New Jersey sheller on you tube and he finds beautiful whelks and other shells. My fav sheller is plum island sea cabin girl from MA and she has a friend that lives on the Jersey shore and she posts great shelling videos they have taken. It does look beautiful.

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Have a dear friend who grew up going to his Grandfather's pink stucco home in Ocean City NJ with beautiful hydrangeas all around, green grass for a lawn, it was idyllic. With little kids and all of the stuff they needed, it was just a little too far to walk to the access, so one of us loaded up the car, hauled the gang over, then drove back and walked. We all needed beach tags and passes to sit on the beach, but only about half of us had them. When the tag kids got too close, it was time to go swimming! We were always pretty successful at avoiding the tag counters. The beach was crowded, but not too much so. That is what going to the beach is for my friend...Mack and Manko's pizza, donuts for breakfast, and the dear friends built up over three generations of going to that beach. Eventually, his mom sold the house. It's gone now, replaced by one three times the size with a pool in the back yard. Awful experience? No. We had fun visiting friends and watching the "Nights in Venice" boat parade from the dock of a friend with a house on the Bay side. We don't have anything like that in French Fry Alley. But I do have sand and sea oats in my yard and I can see the ocean from the top deck. The walk to the water is 50 yards. Sand is sand, and the ocean is salty everywhere.

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"Once you make it there, you’d never know you were at the shore until you actually walked onto the beach. Every inch of sand has been paved over. I just hate it. The rest of the Jersey shore towns are pretty much the same. At least in south Jersey."

I think one could say the same about the area of the Outer Bank, between the Wright Bridge and Whalebone Junction.

BTW.... have you been to Stone Harbor, Avalon, Ocean Grove, Sea Girt, Cape May, Long Beach Island, Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park, Bay Head?

Why bother, they don’t care about the truth just their built in hatred

I don't know Mike. I just get sick of the New Jersey bashing by folks who generalize about the shore based on the few places they have been. Granted charging to get on a beach is a crime. Many towns are overbuilt, but don't look much different than KD, KDH, or NH. One huge difference is many of NJ's oceanfront town are more year-round than seasonal, or even total year-round. NJ shore is located within a couple hours drive of 2 of the largest cities in the US.....quite different than the Outer Banks. Yes beaches are crowded.....but try to park in say Southern Shores...of course the beaches are less crowded because you can't park. We have our faults just like North Carolina.

I’ll bet the Jersey Shore was a helluva nice place to visit a hundred years ago, just like the Outer Banks was a helluva nice place to visit fifty years ago.

Yep, there is a difference between being just south of NYC and just east of Philadelphia and being just south of Moyock and just east of Stumpy Point.

That’s why OBX lags behind Jersey in the horribly depressing overdevelopment. Give us a few years and we will catch up.

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No one goes there anymore, too crowded.

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I used to go to Stone Harbor for the summers back in the early 90's. Have great memories there and great times. I will hold on those with great affection and avoid the negativity.

Now I live here. Is it the same as 10 years ago ? No, but nothing stays the same. But the ocean is still blue and I will focus on the good things.

Life is what you make of it, and can be taken at any time. We all have examples of that.

Stick to the good stuff, it feels better.

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I grew up in NJ, left there in the mid 80's. Spent a lot of time at Sandy Hook, starting in the late 60's before it was a National Park. Spent a fair amount of time at most of the beaches between Sandy Hook and LBI. Seaside Heights was the place to go for a young person back in the 70's-80's. I still visit once a year or so, mostly Point Pleasant, which is still pretty nice. Although, I wouldn't rent a house there for a week like I do in NC. A couple of days there is fun enough.

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"I’ll bet the Jersey Shore was a helluva nice place to visit a hundred years ago,"

I have fond memories of Atlantic City and some of the smaller towns during the '50s and '60s. They were small, and friendly and unhurried. I think we sort of worked our way south, Ocean City, Rehoboth, Dewey, Ocean City MD. The old days were good.

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