BEACH NOTES ... 1/30/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/30/10 11:25 AM
So there are all sorts of amusing things that happen to real estate agents.  Let me share one for you.
 
I live and work in a resort community in South Jersey ... Ocean City, NJ ... about an hour from Philadelphia.
One winter evening about 5PM ... getting dark, I drove about three blocks through town to check out a sale property for a buyer.  I had the keys ... the house was dark as were most of them on the street.  So it is with a resort town in the middle of December or any other winter month.
All … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/28/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/28/10 03:41 PM
New Listing in Northend ... Ocean City, New Jersey ... 109 Atlantic Avenue 1st Floor
 
Listed in mid-December, this 3BR/2BA new construction, Northend Condominium is a very interesting model that has been built to fit on a 47x60 foot lot along Atlantic Avenue.  The result is a larger frontage and a smaller depth than for the typical Northend new construction condominium.
Let's review the floor plan which includes a great deal of open space in the greatroom which includes the modern kitchen, the dining area, and the living room with a gas fireplace.  The result is open space … (2 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... January 28, 2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/28/10 01:34 PM
2010 Real Estate Market  in Ocean City, New Jersey
 
We have given you some opinions regarding the real estate market for 2010; and we have analyzed the inventory from the Multiple Listing Service and gone into detail on property categories: single family, multi-family, and condominiums.  And we covered some other real estate thinking as well.  So if you have been following the postings, hopefully you are ahead of the game.
Let's focus on one more topic:  sold/pending property for the month of January 2010 ... 28 days to be exact.  We find 27 single family under contract ... 6 of … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/27/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/27/10 10:00 AM
2010 Summer  Rentals... We are off to a great start with an excellent January, 2010!!!
 
The one plus during the past three years has been the ongoing success of the "summer rental season."  Generally, a lot of our rental tenants plan for two vacations during the summer or the year ... one in "Ocean City, New Jersey," and the other somewhere else, generally further away from their home base.  Of course, that means that Ocean City (NJ) always gets them for one of their vacations.  That has not really changed all that much in my 18 years as a rental … (2 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/27/2010 - 01/27/10 08:18 AM
We complete our review of the 2010 real estate market ... we wrap it up with a review of the top half of the condominium sale market ... those on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for Ocean City, New Jersey with a price from $500,000 and higher.
 
The $500,00 and $600,000 (actually from $500,000 to $700,000) has been our bread and butter range for the past three years ... we find 84 condominium sale listings from $500,000 to $600,000 and another 77 condominium sale listings from $600,000 to $700,000.  These sale properties start to hit the newer condos closer to … (2 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/26/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/26/10 01:46 PM
Let's review the "Multiple Listing Service" update for 2010 by covering "the condominium property category" from $500,000 down.
 
There are no 653 condominium units for sale throughout Ocean City ... 128 of that total are located in the Northend and Gardens sections of Ocean City (NJ) ... about 20% of the total condominium units.  This property category is the largest in terms of available sale properties throughout Ocean City (NJ). 
Let's break this one down by price points: 
17 under $100,000, 47 under $200,000 (almost all of these properties are efficiency and one-bedroom types, a total of 64 condo … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/25/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/25/10 10:38 AM
Continuing with a review of the market in "Ocean City, New Jersey for 2010," we now turn to another property category ... the multi-family including duplex, triplex, and other types of multi-unit sale properties.
 
The first point of reference is that this property category has been in decline for the past ten years ... we now have only 59 multi-units for sale throughout Ocean City (NJ), about half of that number in the Northend and Gardens areas, and only about 20% of the properties (maybe 12) of these are in areas close to the beach for potential rental purposes.  Most … (2 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/24/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/24/10 08:45 AM
Continuing with my review of 2010 market conditions & predictions for OCEAN CIT (NJ), we will focus on the "single family property category" in this posting.  This property category is the one that many buyers aspire to, but often can't initiate in their first purchase in our resort community.  Why?  Mostly, it is building location, condition, and the major buzz word ... listing price.  In particular, all of these factors come together in terms of what a particular buyer might want to do.  If they want to rent, it costs much more to find a single family close enough to the … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/23/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/23/10 01:05 PM
The Real Estate Market in Ocean City in 2010
 
It remains "a great time to buy" ... clearly, the mortgage rates remain good, the prices are generally favorable for buyers, and the potential for appreciation is there as well.  These factors have not changed in the past three years ... 2007, 2008, and 2009.  That is probably the most important information for Buyers to note.
Another factor for both Buyers and Sellers is the reality of the two major buying periods in Ocean City (NJ) ... the "Spring Buying Period" and the "Fall Buying Period."  Since 2006, this shorter "buying … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/22/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/21/10 03:38 PM
It's another year, and I missed some of my normal activity as I was out in California visiting with our son and his wife.  But a recent column by Nancy Gibbs in TIME (January 11,2010) which I just read (catching up you see) caught my eye.  "Remembrance of Things Future ... the start of a new year is a chance to plan ahead before history changes everything."
 What does that mean?  Well, I just found out that teenagers spend about 6-7 hours daily on the computer, the phone, and other devices.  Now as a former high school principal I know a … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/22/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/21/10 03:29 PM
It's another year, and I missed some of my normal activity as I was out in California visiting with our son and his wife.  But a recent column by Nancy Gibbs in TIME (January 11,2010) which I just read (catching up you see) caught my eye.  "Remembrance of Things Future ... the start of a new year is a chance to plan ahead before history changes everything."
 
What does that mean?  Well, I just found out that teenagers spend about 6-7 hours daily on the computer, the phone, and other devices.  Now as a former high school principal I know … (0 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/20/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/20/10 12:56 PM
MLS Sale Inventory throughout Ocean City, New Jersey
 
As of January 20, 2010, we find the total number of "sale properties"being lower than it was in December 22, 2009 and also lower than January 23, 2009 (about one year ago).  That appears to be a good trend as we start out the new year.  Let's review the totals:
 
 Property Category/          All Ocean  City          Northend/Gardens
   Location
 
Single Family                               220                                  80
Multi-Unit                                        59                                  28
Condominium                              653                                 128
 
Total                                   932                                 236
 
The "932" figure may go up ... but it is a far cry from the 1,000 plus … (3 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/17/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/17/10 04:34 PM
Our 37-day Holiday Vacation is Over ... it's back to work
If you followed our "On the Road Again ... Taking Scoop's (my father) car to California, you know that my wife and I drove 3,529 miles across this great country leaving Ocean City (NJ), our little south Jersey barrier island home location and work location, and going out to Novato (CA) by way of Route #40 through a lot of different states, spending some extra time in Santa Fe (NM) and various spots along the coast of California.  We also spent a week in Sausalito (CA) which gave us access … (2 comments)

BEACH NOTES ... 1/1/2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey - 01/01/10 11:15 AM
ON THE ROAD AGAIN ... well we have a couple more personal exiciting ventures remaining on our trip across the country.  We fly to LA tomorrow AM and board a cruise ship through the Panama Canal and on to Miami and fly back to Atlantic City in mid-January, 2010.
But a Happy New Year to all readers ...
I guess I think 2010 (by the way, I refer to the year as "two-oh-one-oh," an attention-getter) may be fairly similar to the past two years.  It won't be easy.  I hope rates hang in there for buyers.  In our resort community, it … (1 comments)