Wildwood NJ is a drive-to beach town on the south Jersey shore (which is WAAAY different than the North Jersey shore.)
As a drive-to beach destination, we kinda specialize in family vacations, 1x car …vs… 3-4x airfare
is the basic math that is our bread-and-butter.
The beaches, the area etc, are pretty nice,
all the surrounding towns (Cape May, Stone Harbor, Avalon) have economies based on rich people owning summer homes they barely visit.
Median home price Wildwood NJ: $669k
Median home price Avalon NJ: $4m
Median home price Stone Harbor NJ: $4.5m
Median home price Hamptons NY: $1.6m
Median home price Martha’s Vineyard, MA: $1.2m
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Anyway business is booming this summer.
Last summer was m/l normal.
This summer, local retailers say their sales are up about 30%,
and that matches the fact that we have a traffic problem (rare, even in summer here.)
As a kid, and in my youth, I’ve been to Wildwood beaches and boardwalk about 700 times. If you want to go away for a 3-4 day weekend trip, no NJ beach town can compete. It’s a matter of whether or not you want to drive there.
I don’t doubt you, but $669 seems kind of low for a home in Wildwood. It’s not cheap in Cape May either. For the nicer houses that is. When I retire in a few years I’m looking at the Myrtle beach area in SC. For 400-600k you can get some beautiful houses. And leave the NJ politics and property taxes behind.
Well NJ is by far the most populated state per square footage, and is growing. When I drive around I consistently see more and more high density residential developments going up, largely townhome complexes (including 3 in my area). Decent economics, jobs, and people with money to spend. Regarding traffic, especially on the parkway, worst I’ve ever seen in my 60 years here! Every state and country has a limit on how many people it can comfortably hold, as far as I’m concerned NJ is already past that.
Anything on or near the water is highly coveted real-estate and will be very overpriced. Nonetheless, people will pay a premium to be on or near the water.
Yeah I know. I lived in the beach town of Manasquan for 6-7 years. My Aunt rented me the house cheap. It was about 5 blocks from the beach. It’s a small house in disrepair, and she sold it for almost a million dollars recently.
Late Obama era, two major things happened to change the local real estate scene. One was that summer rental became so profitable that all the owners moved inland.
Used to be: live in one unit, rent-out the other 1-5.
Now: live inland and rent-out all of them.
In a short period every owner occupant was looking to by a house inland and ithad a very substantal impact on prices. (And now the place is REALLY like a ghost town in winter.)
Could be homeowners enjoying their 3.5% rates and taking more vacations
–or–
Could be “We can’t afford the vacation we want so we’ll just go to Wildwood.”
LOL, I used to go to Wildwood because that was the vacation I wanted. A 6 pier boardwalk (is that still the same?), great beaches, and 5 million hotels to choose from. The only time I deviated from that was when I went to Bermuda. Which was the same flight time it took me to drive to Wildwood from north Jersey. I mean exit 140 north jersey.
Boardwalk has gotten a little neglected.
Still two really good piers and the crowds are much smaller.
Here was never cheap but some of the cheap stuff, (mini golf, go karts) are gone or nearly gone.
It all comes with a higher portion of summer residents vs weekly renters
