![]() Last summer, he and his wife, Alexandra, 28, bought a property in Normandy Beach. Scriffignano began spending more time in the area helping his family recover. After his parents’ house in Brick was damaged by Sandy, Mr. He has been summering on the Jersey Shore since childhood. After the storm, a similar lot with more than double the oceanfront footage sold for $2.75 million. Of waterfront homes that sold in the area between November 2012 and June 2013, the median selling price dropped 34 percent from the same time period a year earlier, according to an analysis of listings data by Tom Wissel, Multiple Listing Service coordinator for the Ocean County Board of Realtors.īuyers who had previously been priced out of the market may now be able to get a foothold in a town like Mantoloking, where a house with 70 feet of footage on the ocean sold for $3.75 million before the storm. Suddenly, towns where land was rarely available, like Mantoloking, had listings. Prices for waterfront property in hard-hit areas plunged after the storm, largely because of damage to houses. I’m not in the financial position to pay that kind of money for a summer home that I only use a few months out of the year.” McConeghy, a 54-year-old contractor who lives in Wayne, N.J. “When you’re down there and it’s a nice day and the sun’s out, and you hear the ocean, you’re going to miss it,” said Mr. The drop in real estate prices following Hurricane Sandy put the turnkey house within their reach. “I think we’re going to lose some of that blue-collar flavor in the area.”Įllen and Bob Farrell and their new four-bedroom place in Surf City, Long Beach Island, N.J. Reinhart, the director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University. “This is now an opportunity to build bigger homes and they are certainly going to have to build them at a higher elevation and it’s going to cost more,” said Peter S. Owners who can’t afford the flood insurance premiums or who can’t afford to rebuild to these standards are selling. Homeowners with federally backed mortgages must also buy flood insurance, which can be expensive. Other protections include hurricane-proof windows and breakaway walls, which are exterior walls designed to collapse during a severe storm without causing damage to the elevated part of the house or to the foundation. If a house was destroyed or sustained substantial damage, it must be rebuilt to local floodplain requirements, which in the most risky areas can require costly measures like elevating the house on pilings or columns. ![]() Rebuilding in a high-hazard area is not cheap. Many people credit protective armor like sand dunes and sea walls for providing critical cover. While the handsome seaside mansions of Mantoloking were gutted, nearby Bay Head fared much better. While whole blocks in Ortley Beach were leveled, neighboring Midway Beach, replete with the very same style of bungalows, survived largely intact. ![]() In all, the storm destroyed or damaged 346,000 homes in New Jersey.īut Sandy was not evenhanded in her wrath. Of the 127 miles of New Jersey coastline that spans four counties from Cape May in the south to Monmouth County in the north, Hurricane Sandy hit Ocean and Monmouth counties the hardest. “You just stepped the entire gentrification of Ortley Beach forward five years because everything had to be rebuilt.” Birchler, the owner of Birchler Realtors, which sells properties in Ortley Beach and Lavallette, two of the hardest hit areas. “At the end of the day, we’re going to be in a better spot,” said Eric J. ![]() In short, Hurricane Sandy hit the reset button on the Jersey Shore. Others, in the market for a safer bet on the beach, are zeroing in on areas that emerged relatively unscathed. For some, the storm-tossed shore is a blank canvas, awaiting new construction that could redefine the look and feel of the coastline. Warnings of climate change and rising sea levels have done little to deter buyers who see opportunity in disaster. With beaches replenished, boardwalks rebuilt and stores reopened, the Jersey Shore is gearing up for a summer busy enough to make last year’s anemic one a distant memory.Īs renters rush to book their summer houses and buyers snatch up newly vacant land, a different Jersey Shore is taking shape one and a half years after Hurricane Sandy, one in which the small working-class bungalows that once defined communities like Ortley Beach are being replaced with spacious dream homes intended to entice wealthy vacationers. ![]()
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