At the Shore, many homes retained value after a wild ride

If you have the money – and that means cash – you can buy your dream house at the Jersey Shore. If you don’t, as a prospective vacation-home owner you’re being squeezed even harder by the same financial institutions that tightened credit for purchases of primary residences.

The higher the price, “the greater the likelihood the buyer is paying cash for the property,” said Paul Leiser of Avalon Realty. “A $7 million sale is far more likely to be a cash deal than a $1 million sale.”

Like many places these days, Avalon, long a seaside favorite of the well-to-do, isn’t seeing a lot of home sales, period. But those that have occurred have been high enough in value to push the median price up 321 percent since 2005, an Econsult Corp. analysis of transactions in 13 Shore zip codes in Atlantic and Cape May Counties from April 1, 2005, through June 30, 2011, shows.

In comparison, the median price in high-end Stone Harbor is up a modest 87 percent, according to the analysis, conducted by Econsult vice president Kevin Gillen along with a broad examination of home prices in the eight-county Philadelphia region based on 376,257 sales in that period.
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any Shore points that are traditional vacation destinations for Philadelphia-area residents did not fare all that badly in the housing downturn, the analysis showed, with one caveat:

Though almost all the communities retained the value they had in 2005, Stone Harbor alone consistently held onto median-price gains – from 2005 through 2007, when the U.S. housing bubble burst, then through to June 30 of this year.

Avalon’s median price rose 437 percent between 2005 and 2007, for example, then ebbed 22 percent by June 30.

Longport’s median price rose 16 percent from 2005 to 2007, then fell 21 percent from 2007 to second-quarter 2011, for a loss of 9 percent over the full analysis period.

A lot of developers and marginal buyers had banked on price appreciation in Wildwood zip code 08260, which also includes North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest. But the median price there rose just 2 percent from 2005 to 2007 – from $330,000 to $334,975 – then fell 34 percent from 2007 to second-quarter 2011, ending up at $222,375.

Many Wildwood developers were forced to abandon projects. Others brought in auction companies to try to reset the market and sell enough condos to stay ahead of foreclosure actions.

Sea Isle City’s median home price rose 27 percent from 2005 to 2007, on the other hand, then fall 9 percent from 2007 to second-quarter 2011. But at $571,250, it was still 15 percent higher than in 2005.

In Atlantic City, heavily dependent on the now-flagging casino industry, the median price began a precipitous decline in 2005, as prices just about everywhere else were performing spectacularly.

By second-quarter 2011, the median price had lost 53 percent of its 2005 value, plummeting from $269,000 to $125,250.
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Although conditions vary substantially, the U.S. second-home market “is at bottom,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc., of West Chester.

“I don’t expect second-home sales and prices to improve much in the next year – the market will remain at bottom – but I do expect the second-home market to be a strong market over the next five to 10 years,” Zandi said. “There is a strong demographic tailwind behind the market, given the aging of the large baby-boom generation into their 50s and 60s, when second-home buying is strongest.”
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Yet two Atlantic City bedroom communities – Brigantine and Margate – did not take as big a hit as might have been expected, even though the casinos shed thousands of employees who lived in those towns as the tanking economy and competition from other states took a toll.

Brigantine’s second-quarter 2011 median price, $292,250, is just 1 percent below what it was in 2005, though those who bought at the height of the market – when prices were 36 percent higher than in 2005 – saw values tumble 28 percent.

Margate’s median as of June 30, $393,150, was 12 percent lower than 2005 and 20 percent – more than $100,000 – below the 2007 median price of $491,250.

Bottom line: Longtime Shore homeowners came through the housing bust better than those who bought during the boom.

Developer buys Asbury beachfront site

Asbury Partners, the city’s waterfront developer, has bought the unfinished Esperanza high-rise site from Capital One Bank, which had foreclosed on the project, a company official said Friday.

The beachfront site on Ocean Avenue between Third and Fourth avenues is considered a key development parcel and central to the overall waterfront landscape.

But it has been jinxed. For 17 years, the former unfinished high-rise known as “C-8” sat abandoned, a symbol of the earlier failed waterfront redevelopment of the 1980s.

Then, Metro Homes bought the site and imploded the skeleton highrise in the spring of 2006. The Hoboken developer set out to build the dramatic 224-unit Esperanza full of flair and wavy architecture. But the national mortgage crisis set in and in December 2007, Metro Homes closed down the construction site.

“This property is critical to putting the larger waterfront redevelopment back on track,” said Brian Cheripka, a vice president with iStar Financial Inc., which took over ownership of Asbury Partners in December 2009 when the former Asbury Partners’ principals could not repay $70 million in loans.
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“I think it’s a great step forward and an exciting development, especially for that parcel of land which has just had so many false starts,” Mayor Ed Johnson said Friday. “I remain hopeful and confident that this is its final start, and we will begin to see development start on that site and throughout the waterfront.”

Jersey Shore home prices down, big bargains for buyers

Home prices continue to fall across the U.S. Sellers are taking a hit, but for buyers there are big bargains.

It is not as bleak as some parts of Florida or Nevada, but the Jersey Shore Real Estate Market is struggling.

For sellers, it’s a tough dose of reality, for buyers it could mean bargains.

In once booming areas, its estimated prices are down15 to 40 percent.

Don Pettinelli has beautiful views from his Harbor Cove North home in Somers Point, but few neighbors, only 4 of the 14 upscale units sold in the last four years.

“I just like the water,” Don said.

Don paid $900,000 in 2009, now the developer is opting to auction off the rest, starting bids as low as $175,000; which was unthinkable a couple years ago.

“The purpose is to sell inventory that the seller has been struggling with for some time since market retrenched, and we’re going to take them to a public auction. People are going to vote on what they think they are worth in a setting among their peers,” explained Glen McDonald of Max Spann Auction Company.
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The idea of auctioning off luxury condos is not a shock to locals like kayaker Craig Bauman.

“People trying to sell their houses so they are cutting prices almost in half just to get rid of them,” said Bauman.

Don Pettinelli has mixed emotions. On the up side the auction will set a real price for these units that should help him convince local government to lower his taxes, the downside, he says lowers the value of his property.

Rumson mansion sells for $12 million

A spectacular grand estate on the Navesink River in Rumson built by Pete and Judi Dawkins sold for $12 million on Friday, a figure less than half the initial $29.9 million asking price.

The 18-room house at 80 W. River Road — 18,000 square feet with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms — was sold to an unidentified area buyer, said the buyer’s agent, Kelly Zaccaro, a sales associate with Gloria Nilson Realtors Real Living in Rumson.

“They bought this because it was really beautiful and very well-done,” Zaccaro said. “It was the most amazingly built house. The attention to detail they put into it was beyond anything I have ever seen.”

The selling price breaks the previous record — last July’s $9.9 million for the seaside Spring Lake mansion formerly owned by the late New Jersey Devils owner John McMullen — on the Monmouth/Ocean Multiple Listing Service. A private sale for a waterfront home on Navesink River Road in Middletown netted nearly $13.2 million in 2005, and is now on the market for $11 million.

The Dawkins house was originally listed at $29.9 million in March 2010 by Turpin Realtors in Tewksbury before it dropped to $19.5 million in July. The Dawkins’ real estate agent had no comment on the sale. John Turpin, the agency’s broker-of-record, could not be reached.
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Dawkins and his wife, Judi, bought the property over 10 years ago for $4.5 million. After a year, they decided to dismantle the existing house. They brought in noted architect Bernard Wharton, who designed their dream house, which was completed in 2004.

Another Fight on Jersey Shore

The quest for easy access at the Jersey Shore could be a thing of the past.

State regulators have proposed allowing every town to decide where—if anywhere—to provide parking, bathrooms and other necessities for families packing up and heading to the beach, frustrating people who were hoping for stricter policies that would force towns to accommodate sun-worshippers. Towns’ plans would need state approval.

It’s a reversal from a Corzine administration policy that tried to create standardized rules, such as requiring towns to provide round-the-clock parking and public facilities every half-mile. The state was paying for shore maintenance, and courts had ruled beaches are open to the public up to the high water mark.

But those rules were struck down in 2009 after the town of Avalon sued, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is trying a new approach.

State officials promise access will be the same, or better, and they say they’re frustrated with claims to the contrary. Towns will have the option to supplement statewide regulations that require new developments to have access points.
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Still, some say it’s just wrong for towns to all but block beaches and waterways that belong to the public. It’s not simply about walkways or openings to the sand. In essence, parking and bathrooms contribute to truly open access, said Helen Henderson, a policy advocate with the American Littoral Society.

“That’s not something that the DEP can remove, any more than they can the right to free speech,” she said. “We have these fundamental rights that exist.”
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Mr. Cantor said there were a handful of towns that people complain about: Sea Bright, Deal, Loveladies, Mantoloking and some sections of Long Branch. He said the state is working with those towns to create plans. Towns that don’t comply could face stricter and more expensive permitting, as well as be ineligible for applying for certain state funds. Some of those penalties are not in current regulations, but will be included soon, he said.

That’s not good enough for Ms. Henderson.

“We don’t trust them, and we don’t trust the municipalities to do right by the people,” Ms. Henderson said. “That opportunity has been there in the past and it hasn’t been fulfilled.”

From CBS2:

Proposed Beach Access Changes Along Jersey Shore Drawing Mixed Reaction

To some New Jersey beachgoers, it’s like getting sand kicked in their face.

A new proposal may allow individual shore towns to determine rules for beach access, and that means shore-lovers could get shut out of their favorite beaches, reports CBS 2′s Christine Sloan.

While people will have no problem lying out on the beach for this Memorial Day Weekend, environmentalists said that by the end of the summer, they may have a tougher time getting on the more exclusive beaches in New Jersey.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection wants to relax rules, allowing shore towns to create their own beach access plans.

“The rule proposal gives more power to the towns, and we think it’s a mistake because historically, some towns – only a handful – have restricted beach access,” John Weber said.

Weber, who works with an organization called Surfrider that’s fighting the proposal, pointed to exclusive towns like Bay Head and Mantoloking. He said they’ve made it difficult to use their beaches by providing little parking, no bathrooms and excessive rules.

If the proposal goes through, Weber said, they could have more power to limit access.

Tourist Emily Wilson said she sees nothing wrong with that.

“It’s nice to have a sense of community, where you go on the beach and know it’s only your neighbors or people renting your neighbor’s house,” she said. “It keeps it nice and private.”

Summer Shore Rentals On The Rise

As Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer season, approaches, most people have their eyes on a Jersey Shore vacation, and some are saying vacation rentals are on the rise.

In Ocean City, N.J., rentals are already up from last summer. Real estate specialists on the shore say that it might actually be difficult to find an available rental property this late in the season if you haven’t already started looking.

From the Record:

Shore tourism outlook is bright

The summer forecast is bright for Shore travel, which accounts for about two-thirds of the state’s $39 billion tourism industry.

An improving economy, along with vacationers’ desire to stay close to home in the face of high gasoline prices, will boost Shore visits this summer, according to a recent “shorecast” panel at Richard Stockton College in Atlantic County.

Tourism officials are already seeing signs of growth.

“Parking revenues, rentals, hotel accommodations and beach tag sales — all strong indicators of what kind of season we expect to have — are way ahead of last year’s pace,” Michele Gillian, executive director of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, said at the panel discussion. And last year was pretty strong, thanks to hot, dry weather.

In interviews, tourism officials said that website visits and requests for travel brochures are up significantly over last year. Diane Wieland, director of the Cape May County Department of Tourism, has seen an increase in vacation home rentals and hotel reservations in the southern Shore towns.

While the Shore draws most heavily from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, tourism departments have increased their marketing in Quebec. The Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than the American dollar, making U.S. vacations more affordable for Canadians.

“There are an estimated half-million Canadians who travel to New Jersey each year,” Wieland said.

Lori Pepenella, a marketing executive at the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, said that weekend and day visits to Long Beach Island are already running ahead of last year.
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But economic stresses continue to force visitors to economize where they can. Tourism officials say visitors are choosing shorter stays — day trips or weekend getaways — and asking about lodging that includes kitchenettes, so they can avoid spending on restaurant meals. That trend has been in place since the recession began in late 2007.

From the Philly Inquirer:

Taking the backroads to the Shore

Heading to the Shore over an expressway isn’t for everyone. Some folks prefer the backroads.

But for the experienced trekker, writing down the names of the roads can be tricky. Notes can include phrases such as “past the car dealerships,” “that farm stand with the peaches,” “that graveyard” and “666.”

Jersey Shore backroads can be hard to pin down. Except for adventurous drivers wandering off the Atlantic City Expressway or Garden State Parkway’s standard routes with a map or GPS in hand, most Shore routes were handed down by parents and grandparents. They started their summer vacations before the Atlantic City Expressway opened in 1964, and ahead of the Garden State Parkway’s completion in 1957.

“I grew up with parents trying to figure out the back way to avoid part of the Garden State Parkway by going through, parallel, and over it,” says Kathryn Quigley, 44. Her family drove from Northeast Philadelphia to Stone Harbor along a route that included “the TAC” (i.e. the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge), a “restaurant with a triangle-shaped roof, and the bathrooms were out back.”

In Jersey Shore Subset, Top-Heavy With Pricey Homes

WHEN a newly built house beside the beach in Sea Girt went into contract for $3.6 million last month, it was sort of a good news-bad news occurrence, in the eyes of real estate brokers and agents.

The good news — obviously — was the handsome price, fetched in a market overflowing with expensive homes in this part of Monmouth County. The not-so-good news was that the sale had taken three years. And the really bad news was that the sale price amounted to only 68 percent of the original asking price of $5.288 million for the house, at 9 the Terrace.
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In the first four months of this year 138 houses were put on the market in the three towns Mr. Wight mentioned, which are considered a submarket by the county’s multiple listing service. There were 28 closed sales during those months, with an average sale price of $1.2 million, according to listing data. The year before, 29 homes were sold, for an average of $1.36 million.

In the first quarter of this year the median sale price was also down, to $774,550 from $975,000 in early 2010. (The median represents a midpoint, with half the sales for more and half for less; statisticians prefer it to the average, because it tends to be less affected by one or two very high-priced or low-priced sales.)

And as prices sank, the time that a typical house spent on the market increased, to 144 days, from 119 last year.

“On the positive side,” said Keith Kernan, an agent in Ward Wight’s office in Sea Girt, “most sellers have become more realistic about prices, and the average home is now selling for 92 percent of its list price.”
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“There are buyers out there for these exceptional homes, with some percentage of them being second-home buyers, since this is a resort area,” said Mr. Kernan, estimating that about 30 percent of buyers in the area pay cash, and do not take out a mortgage.

“This type of buyer is acutely aware of market conditions,” he said. “If a house is priced right, it will move right away, no matter what price range you are talking about.”

But the price range does make a difference.

Recently a house in Wall Township, just inland of Spring Lake, was sold in a single day; it had not found a buyer when priced in the mid-$500,000s, but as soon as the price fell below $500,000, it was snapped up — with multiple offers still pending should that deal fall through, according to Mr. Wight.
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Manasquan, the most southerly of the three towns, typically has a somewhat larger sale inventory than Spring Lake. At the beginning of April, according to the Otteau Valuation Group, a New Brunswick company that compiles monthly real estate reports, 118 properties in Manasquan had not sold after at least a month on the market.

Spring Lake had 96 houses sitting on the market. Sea Girt had 37. Most of the highest-price houses for sale are in these two towns.

Housing boom a bust for Shore populations

It was 2004 when Lorraine McCarthy, a full-time resident of this Cape May County resort, sold her duplex a block from the boardwalk and decamped to the mainland.

“The choice we made to move off the barrier island was the same choice that a lot of people who wanted to make some money made,” said McCarthy, who lives in nearby Upper Township. “It was the best time to sell.”

The Jersey Shore’s real estate boom, it now seems, had a more profound effect on the region’s population than many realized.

In beach towns up and down the coast, the number of year-round residents dropped significantly last decade – almost 40 percent in one case, according to recently released U.S. Census statistics that surprised and alarmed some local officials.

“I knew our population numbers were going to be down, but I didn’t know they were going to be down this much,” said Suzanne Walters, who has noticed the voter rolls shrinking during her 15 years as mayor of Stone Harbor. The little borough’s population declined 23 percent between 2000 and 2010.

The robust economy during most of the decade led to a fevered real estate climate, said James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

“A lot of year-around residents at the Shore saw their property values surge, so they took advantage of the market,” Hughes said. Many migrated inland or left the state after their modest year-around dwellings were purchased – and sometimes replaced with larger homes – by people who live elsewhere.

Others, mostly retirees, held on to their properties and still vanished from local census roles, Hughes said, by acquiring winter residences in other states that they declared as their primary residences.

Their motivation: refuge from the Garden State’s notoriously high cost of living.
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Having fewer residents also affects schools. In Sea Isle City, where the full-time population shrank 25 percent last decade, the Board of Education has asked the state to order its school district and neighboring Ocean City’s to merge
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Between 2000 and 2010, Ocean City’s year-around population dropped about 24 percent to 11,701 residents. Among 10 Cape May County coastal locations, populations in nine declined, between less than 1 percent (Lower Township) and 38 percent (Avalon), according to the census. (Tiny Cape May Point gained 50 residents – an increase of 21 percent.) The towns’ total population dropped about 12 percent.

In Atlantic County, the combined population of Atlantic City, Brigantine, Longport, Margate, and Ventnor dropped about 11 percent to 66,907 during the decade. The greatest losses were in Brigantine (25 percent) and Margate (22 percent).

Meanwhile, the county’s mainland municipality of Egg Harbor Township experienced the second-highest population growth in the state. Galloway and Hamilton, both inland, also were among the top 25 gainers.
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“People just cashed out,” said Walters, of Stone Harbor, which had 866 residents last year, according to the census.

“I know a lot of people, longtime residents, that sold and moved over to Cape May Court House on the mainland and used the money to buy a bigger home or pay for their kid’s college education. And a lot of retirees permanently moved to Florida or the Carolinas, where they found the cost of living to be cheaper,” she said.

“A lot of people talk about what we can do to lower taxes and costs and to keep our residents from fleeing the state. Maybe this will be a wake-up call that we need to stop talking and do something about it.”

A Low Tide for Home Sales in the Shoreline Market

FOR the shoreline real estate market, by unvarying tradition, spring arrives early. Sometime in mid-January, in all four coastal counties — Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May — the number of listings begins to swell and rises in small waves, usually reaching a peak by early April.

So far this year that pattern remains unbroken, according to brokers selling homes in the shore counties.

Price trends, on the other hand, appear to be breaking in unusual directions. A look at sales statistics from the last two years indicates that towns on beaches are doing less well than their counties-at-large, according to Jeffrey G. Otteau, the president of the Otteau Valuation Group in New Brunswick.

In one sense, this flouts Realtor wisdom, as proximity to water ordinarily translates unambiguously to premium prices. But economic uncertainty changes things, Mr. Otteau said. “People are more conservative about how much they will spend for a house, and especially a second house, if that is what they are looking to buy,” he said.

In Belmar, a beach community with 6,000 year-round residents, the median sales price in 2010 represented a 4.3 percent decline from 2009. It was $400,000, down from $418,000. Yet in Monmouth County, where Belmar is situated, the median price over that same period rose by 2 percent.
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If you look at the average sales price disparity in this instance, it was even greater. Belmar’s was down by 15.1 percent, and Monmouth’s was up by 3 percent.

In 2007, when redevelopment of Belmar’s beachfront began, the median price reached a high of $456,000.

“For several years after that there was pricing arrogance in Belmar,” said Brian Church, a broker for Ward Wight Sotheby’s International Realty. “They had done a great job of improving their profile. But then sellers got a little cocky with pricing and it took a while for prices to come back down.”

Mr. Church said that many buyers “voted with their feet,” seeking lower-priced homes in nearby communities like Avon, Ocean Grove and Bradley Beach — until sellers in Belmar started to become more realistic about asking prices.
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In Ocean County, where the median price did not change appreciably in 2010, it was down 7.56 percent in Seaside Heights, the honky-tonk beachfront town that is the film site for the TV reality show “Jersey Shore.” The most expensive house sold in Seaside last year went for $607,500; the median sales price was $220,000.

In Point Pleasant Beach, another popular Ocean County community, the median essentially stayed the same — $522,000 — but there were 17 percent fewer sales than in the previous year.

Down in Atlantic County the Atlantic City housing market, mostly condominiums, continued its rapid deterioration; the median price was down 20.1 percent, to $147,350. In more neighborhood-oriented Brigantine, by contrast, the price dipped 3.5 percent, to $308,500. Atlantic County’s median stayed flat, at $206,144.

In the southernmost county, Cape May, North Wildwood was one of the strongest markets. Indeed, it outdid the county, but not in very impressive style. Its median price declined by 0.3 percent; the county’s fell by 3 percent.

Shore home prices still falling

ome prices at the Jersey Shore continue to search for a bottom, almost four years after the U.S. housing market took a downward turn.

An analysis of second-quarter 2010 sale prices in Atlantic and Cape May Counties, done by Econsult Inc. vice president Kevin Gillen for Prudential Fox & Roach, shows that the typical Shore house has lost 24 percent of its value since the market’s peak in the second quarter of 2006.

By comparison, Philadelphia’s single-family home prices fell 6.8 percent in the same period, U.S. prices dropped an average of 13.2 percent, and the average decline for New Jersey as a whole was 13.6 percent.

“This disparity is likely attributable to the fact that the market for Shore homes is disproportionately composed of vacation homes, rather than year-round primary residences,” Gillen said last week. “As foreclosures have climbed along with unemployment and mortgage delinquencies, most households are incentivized to liquidate their second home or vacation home before doing likewise to their year-round residence.”
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In 2005, said Moody’s Analytics Inc. chief economist Mark Zandi, “76 percent of loans to purchase a single-family home in the Ocean City metro area were to investors – the highest in the country.”

“Yes, the boom, bubble, and bust in Jersey Shore prices is due, in significant part, to the rampant speculation in housing,” Zandi said.

Bill Mestichelli of Philadelphia has sold two vacation houses and a rental property in Ocean City in six years. Even with a dip in prices of 14.7 percent since 2006, he said, “I think the market down there is still way overpriced.

“The mortgage companies are very tight with lending for second homes without a hefty down payment,” Mestichelli said. “I plan to get back in the market in Ocean City in about two years, when I believe the prices will stabilize.”
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How distressed is the Shore? Since 2007, there have been 10,527 foreclosure filings in Atlantic County, with lenders taking back 1,236 homes, according to RealtyTrac Inc., of Irvine, Calif., which tracks U.S. foreclosures. For the same period in Cape May County, there were 4,665 filings and 580 lender repossessions.

The hardest-hit town has been Atlantic City, where prices have nose-dived 63.3 percent since the market’s peak, Gillen’s analysis indicated.

Tough real estate market for the rich, too

There is a house for sale in Brick that overlooks a cove adjacent to Barnegat Bay. It has five bedrooms, 6 1/2 baths and an oversized kitchen with two granite islands. It has a three-car garage, a swimming pool and sweeping views.

And it can be yours for $3.3 million. Make that $2.5 million. Make that $2.25 million.

“It hasn’t been able to sell because of the market,” Jo Vocisano, a Piscataway resident who owns the home, said. “The house is beautiful. Beautiful view. And very different. And you need a person with that taste because the house is so beautifully different.”

The Shore’s million-dollar housing market has been struggling to gain traction. The number of homes for sale seem to outweigh the number of qualified buyers, making for a formula that is no different than the overall market.

Real estate agents say there are signs of hope. Prices have fallen in a correction that puts the market more in line with the economy. But a major hurdle remains: Banks, still burned by the housing bubble, are scrutinizing buyers’ creditworthiness more closely.

“The underwriting guidelines for jumbo loans — $1 million plus — are much tighter than they have ever been,” said Sean Clark, vice president of Advisors Mortgage Group LLC, a mortgage banker in Wall. “Higher down payments are required. Higher (credit) scores. Just all around much tougher.”

Town is down on its luxe

In this economy, it’s not uncommon for whole neighborhoods to be on the market. But Rumson, NJ, a leafy bedroom community of 7,200 residents, nonetheless stands out: It has 100 homes for sale — all for more than $1 million.

“The streets are filled with distracting ‘for sale’ signs,” says one resident. “Lots of husbands are hanging out at the bagel deli. They used to be working and now are picking up bagels. There’s a new class of Americans in Rumson: the formerly rich.”

The glut of luxury homes has lent a surreal quality to the town, and weekends find brokers sitting at open houses waiting for buyers that never come. Many of the properties have been on the market for more than a year.
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Notable residents include Bruce Springsteen, as well as Goldman Sachs bankers, hedge-fund honchos and retired baseball and NFL stars.

But lately, even this community has felt the pinch of the recession. One resident said the top-rated restaurant in town, David Burke’s Fromagerie, which serves a $42 veal chop, has a waiting list for “Burger Night,” where locals can “enjoy a salad, burger & glass of wine or beer, only $25 per person.”

The impact on real estate has been particularly acute. According to the sales Web site Trulia, there are about 100 homes — excluding private sales, foreclosures and quiet bank sales — on the block for more than $1 million. Expanding to include the homes within one mile, the number jumps to 190.

“People don’t have the money they used to have,” says Richard “Ric” Martel Jr., a broker in the Rumson office of Prudential Zack Shore Properties. “The scenario could be a banker who was making $1.5 million, and now their company went under — like Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns — or they have seen their comp cut to $750,000, and the house they bought in 2005 for $1.6 million is now worth $1.1 million, and . . . the mortgage is $1.280 million.”

Residents are “still owning nice cars and belonging to beach clubs and country clubs, and they’re asking themselves, ‘Where can I cut my monthly nut?’ The answer is to put their home up for sale.”

The problem is that every house on their block is for sale, too.

Gov. Christie pledges to turn Atlantic City casino district into ‘Las Vegas East’

With more flair than a traveling road act, Gov. Chris Christie stood on the 50-yard line of the New Meadowlands Stadium today and declared the state government’s long romance with horse racing dead.

“I don’t have the money to subsidize failure,” he said, summarizing the findings of a special commission which has concluded the state’s long financial support of horse racing has had its day. It’s a river of red ink and can’t be saved.

A helicopter ride later, he stood on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and pledged to take over the faltering casino district and turn the city into “Las Vegas East.” Flanked by the mayor and city council he side-stepped the part of the commission findings that called Atlantic City corrupt and portrayed it as incredibly inept. He said the changes his commission proposes are needed by this time next summer.

“Delay will lead to demise,” the governor said.

The day had the feel of a major public relations blitz, aimed at stoking support for one of the boldest moves to come out of the statehouse in years. In some parts of the political landscape it seemed to be working.

Seaside sees good times when MTV show returns

Filming of the MTV reality series “Jersey Shore” doesn’t begin here until July, but local business leaders Monday night rolled out the red carpet for the next season of the show.

About 60 people, including network representatives, assembled at the Spicy Cantina on the boardwalk to pledge support for the sometimes controversial show that has garnered its share of headlines since premiering in 2009.

A lot has changed here in a year: Few outside of the business community were even aware of the series production schedule at this time in 2009.

But from an economics perspective, “Jersey Shore” has been a boon for this resort town as the location of the show.

“It’s been an amazing thing to see down here, with tourists coming from all around the country, wearing and purchasing T-shirts,” said Michael Loundy, one of the hosts of the dinner and a broker at Seaside Realty. “The series has been great for the business community and the town of Seaside Heights.”
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“Last year we invested about $4 million into the local economy and purchased over 20,000 meals during production,” Salsano said. “I’ve been to the Shore a lot in my life and Seaside Heights is what I think of when I think of the classic Jersey Shore town.”
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Loundy said last month the house on Ocean Terrace, which has six bedrooms and three bathrooms and a 12-person occupancy, rents for $12,000 per three-day holiday weekend — a rate roughly 33 percent higher than a comparable beachfront property.

Shore’s summer rental market remains unsteady

Jim Fuhse has rented property in Manasquan to summertime tourists since the early 1990s, through recessions and expansions, through sun and rain, so he can attest: This season is just, plain strange.

He had hoped the apparent end of the recession would unleash a pent-up demand, but that hasn’t been the case. Instead, he has gotten calls at the last minute from groups backing out because they couldn’t find enough friends to go in with them.

“It’s never been a worry before,” Fuhse said of trying to rent the home, three blocks from the beach. “It’s just unusual.”

The Shore’s summer rental market, an early indicator of the upcoming tourism season, remains solidly in the renters’ favor. They are waiting longer and asking for discounts. And they are causing landlords some sleepless nights.
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For property owners, there is a lot at stake in getting their share. They depend on the summer months to pay the mortgage, taxes and insurance, and at least some of those expenses have risen sharply in recent years.

But their chances of keeping up with those costs by charging higher prices are slim. The recession has taken a toll on consumers. Some have lost their jobs. Others have found it tougher to find disposable income or borrow money for vacations.

Jerry Fahey, a real estate agent from Providence, R.I., symbolizes the mindset. He comes to the Shore virtually every year for a family reunion and rented a house last year on Long Beach Island for $2,500 a week.

This year? “We’re definitely looking for (a home for) less than that,” Fahey said. “You’d like to save a few dollars if you can, you know?”