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cape may county: Our 10th Anniversary - 01/30/11 05:54 AM
Our 10th Anniversary
January 30th, 2011
Looking back at our beginnings on January 29, 2001, it seems like such a long time ago. We opened our Wildwood Crest real estate office that day. We didn't know what to expect. We had no idea if our "Modern Technology, Old-Fashioned Service" philosophy would work. Would people even care? Could we compete with the chain franchises in a decidedly down market?
Well, Jewell Real Estate Agency was a success right away. The combination of the local vacation home real estate market taking off in 2001 and people really appreciating the personal service of … (5 comments)
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cape may county: Optimism on the Horizon - 01/25/11 08:42 AM
Optimism on the Horizon, Part II
Back on December 18, 2010, about 4 1/2 weeks ago, we wrote on this blogsite about our optimistic outlook on the local vacation home real estate market here at the shore in Cape May County, New Jersey. We talked about expanding our business, but purposely left you in the dark about how it would be accomplished.
Well, here it is.
We have a signed agreement to purchase the property next door. A former upscale home decor business, the owners were forced to close their lucrative business due to health issues. They listed the 100′x60′ property for sale with … (2 comments)
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cape may county: $201,343,605 - 01/25/11 08:38 AM
$201,343,605
Catchy title, huh?
So what does $201,343,605 mean? Unfortunately, it's not how much money we won in the MegaMillions or Powerball lotteries. It's not our national debt, it's not New Jersey's budget deficit.
It is the total value of all properties sold in the Wildwoods in 2010 by realtors belonging to the Cape May County Association of Realtors. That amount includes sales in Wildwood, North Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Diamond Beach. Just think, $200 million changed hands. Dreams were realized for some, while broken dreams were a reality for others. For others, it was business as usual.
In … (0 comments)
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cape may county: Temperance Still Alive - 01/20/11 05:43 PM
Temperance Still Alive
Ocean City, a seashore town located at the north end of Cape May County, New Jersey, was founded in 1879 by four Methodist ministers. The town is a popular resort, with plenty of beaches, a Boardwalk, amusement rides, restaurants, retail stores, etc, even the Ocean City Pops. The year-round population of about 15,000 swells to 150,000 on any given day in the summer.
Ocean City gained notoriety for its idiotic Blue Laws, which designated Sunday as a day of no driving, no ocean bathing, no retail sales of any kind, no recreational activities. I guess the only thing you … (3 comments)
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cape may county: Daydreaming - 01/19/11 08:15 PM
Daydreaming
January 19th, 2011
The human mind is a funny thing. You can play tricks on it, even though your mind knows you're playing a trick. More simply put, you can divert your mind to thoughts of pleasant things to help blot out the unpleasant and your mind will go along with the deception.
Case in point is City Girl. On Christmas day, she laid in tremendous pain in the hospital with a broken hip. The ball of the femur (thigh) bone had totally pulled out of the hip socket. The pain was constant, excruciating. I mentioned that perhaps we … (0 comments)
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cape may county: Early Winter Newsletter - 01/19/11 08:09 PM
A COLD START
Forget about autumn. Winter got off to a roaring start in early December, completely ignoring the fact that winter was still a couple weeks away. Temperatures through Christmas day were averaging six degrees below normal for December in Cape May County. But there is some good news: less than an inch of snow had fallen until the 17" that arrived the day after Christmas. Let's hope that's all we get.
The snowbirds have good reason to head south to Florida for the winter. For the rest of us, we can at least have some satisfaction knowing that the … (0 comments)
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cape may county: The Vacation Home Real Estate Market is back! - 12/23/10 03:02 PM
The Vacation Home Real Estate Market is back! Go ahead and snicker. This Mountain Man guy (and City Girl) is full of bull, you're thinking. Not so fast, my friend. Sure, the national unemployment numbers are still tough to swallow. And yes, we are still seeing more vacant store fronts popping up. Discretionary spending is off, too, though you have to wonder when you see folks descend on a mall and drop hundreds of dollars on trivial junk for Christmas. But here in Cape May County, New Jersey at the shore, the tide has turned in the real estate market. Pun intended. … (0 comments)
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cape may county: 'Tis the Season to write Blogs - 12/23/10 02:05 PM
‘Tis the Season to write Blogs With winter firmly entrenched here in South Jersey, it's time to focus on writing articles for this blogsite. As you may have noticed the past two years, we make many additions to this blogsite December through March, but with the warm weather comes other more-pressing responsibilities.
This past year, our thoughts in the warm months turned to many other diversions. First up was The Free Meal Center, Cape May County's first-ever daily soup kitchen. We formed a non-profit organization on January 25, 2010 and took possession of the 4,275 square foot building situated on 2.38 … (2 comments)
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cape may county: Late Winter Newsletter - 03/12/10 05:05 AM
ENOUGH ALREADY
The winter of 2010 is being called "Terrible Ten" here in Cape May County. The record has been set as this being the most snowfall ever, with 48" on the ground as of February 11th. At one point in the February 5-6 blizzard - which dropped 20" of wet, heavy snow - 80,000 folks were without electricity in the county.
A week later, there were still thousands without electricity. Hundreds of utility trucks from throughout the East Coast were in Cape May County to help restore power. They've had to replace over a hundred power poles and nine miles … (1 comments)
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cape may county: Lower Township's Revaluation - 02/19/10 05:14 AM
Lower Township's Revaluation
February 19th, 2010
Sometimes a municipality in New Jersey actually shows foresight and at the same time saves itself a lot of money. Such is the case recently in Lower Township, Cape May County.
The township completed a full-blown revaluation in 2007, raising the total value of all properties from $1.5 billion to $4.73 billion. While the new figure was more in line with reality, it came at the time when the real estate market was in a deadfall. Property values were dropping about a half percent per month.
A petition signed by 1,500 property owners against the … (1 comments)
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cape may county: Feeding the Hungry in Cape May County - 02/11/10 04:52 AM
Feeding the Hungry in Cape May County
February 11th, 2010
We just couldn't stand by any longer and do nothing about the hunger and nutrition problem here in Cape May County, New Jersey. It was time to act.
In a county that has hundreds of multi-million dollar vacation homes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, there is a flip side to the coin. Of 42,000 yearround families, nearly 4,000 households live under the poverty line ($22,050 for 4) and another 9,500 have social security as their sole source of income. The unemployment rate is around 13%, and when you … (4 comments)
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cape may county: RIP New Jersey COAH - 02/02/10 04:52 AM
RIP New Jersey COAH
February 2nd, 2010
A New Jersey State Senate bill recently introduced would abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), taking implementation of low and moderate income housing standards from the state and putting it in the hands of municipalities. It's about time.
COAH came into existence in the late 1970's as a result of the New Jersey Supreme Court's Mt. Laurel Decision, which basically said that municipalities cannot zone against low and moderate-income housing and must supply affordable housing. COAH set quotas for each of the state's 567 (now 566) municipalities.
The quota system was unfair to many municipalities, setting … (0 comments)
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cape may county: Our Real Estate Market - New Jersey - 01/30/10 05:31 AM
Our Real Estate Market
January 29th, 2010
We realtors can talk all we want about our local real estate market, but there's nothing like good, hard numbers to bring out the true picture. So here are the numbers for the Cape May County, New Jersey market since 2005. These statistics are for properties sold through our local Multiple Listing Service and don't include private sales. They also don't include Ocean City, which belongs to the Atlantic County Association of Realtors and MLS.
In 2005, there were 3,628 properties sold. The asking price total was $2.01 billion and they got $1.92 … (1 comments)
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cape may county: My Toyota - 01/29/10 04:29 AM
My Toyota
January 28th, 2010
After owning three successive Dodge Dakotas, we bought a new Toyota Tundra last May. It is a 2009 4-wheel drive pickup truck with the full-sized backseat. We asked the dealer to make three modifications as a condition of purchasing the vehicle. They agreed, then did none of them. No wonder car dealers have a reputation for "say anything to make a sale."
Anyway, our Tundra was one of over four million Toyotas recalled last summer because of a reported problem with the driver's floor mat slipping underneath the pedals. Our mat is secured by a big plastic clip … (4 comments)
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cape may county: Invasive Plant Species - 01/15/10 08:50 PM
Invasive Plant Species
January 15th, 2010
It looked like such a cute plant sitting there on forest floor near the back corner of our property here in Cape May County, New Jersey. It had pretty purple flowers and an intriguing stem that sprouted out a couple leaves every few inches. The perennial plant sat there all by itself, yearning to be saved. Always a sucker for flora and fauna, we transplanted it to a safe, sunny spot in our garden and forgot about it.
The next growing season it spread some via an underground root system. Again, the purple flowers were beautiful. By … (3 comments)
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cape may county: The Little Town That Could - 01/11/10 09:44 AM
The Little Town That Could
January 11th, 2010
The Borough of Woodbine is located in the northwest corner of Cape May County, in southern New Jersey. Situated in the Pinelands National Reserve, Woodbine is physically located about 20 miles from the very affluent beachfront communities of Avalon and Stone Harbor and 30 miles from trendy, historic Cape May. But in perception, they are a million miles apart.
Woodbine shouldn't be underestimated. It's the hidden gem of the county. And continually preparing itself for future prosperity.
The rural, wooded town of 2,700 folks boasts an airport, a museum, the largest employer in … (1 comments)
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cape may county: Words are Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - 01/06/10 07:14 AM
Words are Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
January 6th, 2010
Isn't the English language "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". That 34 letter word, sung so handsomely by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in the movie Mary Poppins, means wonderful. It is the longest non-medical, non-technical, non-foreign word in the English language. Did you get all that?
Well, that is unless you consider it not really a word, since it was made up by the two brothers who wrote the song for the Disney movie. In that case, the longest word is "antidisestablishmentarianism", at 28 letters. Can't you remember back in the 1950s or '60s being so smug because as … (7 comments)
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cape may county: Catholic Schools reeling in Cape May County - 01/06/10 05:33 AM
Catholic Schools reeling in Cape May County
January 6th, 2010
Just one day after school officials called rumors of Wildwood Catholic High School's closing unfounded, the Diocese of Camden announced that the school will close at the end of the school year this June. It's just the latest round in the demise of the Catholic church in Cape May County.
In 2007, St. Raymond's elementary/junior high school in the Villas section of Lower Township was closed by the Diocese of Camden, which oversees the Catholic goings-on in southern New Jersey. Students, parents, and teachers were saddened, outraged, and in shock. … (4 comments)
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cape may county: New Jersey Entices Solar - 01/05/10 02:51 PM
New Jersey Entices Solar
January 5th, 2010
New Jersey has the reputation of being one of the most business-unfriendly of the 50 United States. It's well deserved. They did it the old-fashioned way - they earned it!
But solar power is the exception. New Jersey is mandated by the state's Energy Master Plan to provide 20 percent of its energy through renewable sources by 2020. To reach that lofty goal just 10 years away, the state is offering monetary incentives to get it done. And alternative energy providers are lining up to cash in.
The state set up a system … (1 comments)
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cape may county: No Repeat of Bubble Burst? - 01/04/10 05:29 PM
No Repeat of Bubble Burst?
Mountain Man and City Girl
The Blogsite of Jewell Real Estate Agency, Wildwood Crest, NJ 609-729-8505
January 4th, 2010
As the United States slowly pulls itself out of the depths of the recession, many still wonder how it happened and whether it can happen again? Good questions, and the answers all have to do in some way with real estate.
The biggest cause of the housing bubble was that the Federal Reserve and then chairman Alan Greenspan did not recognize what was happening soon enough. But they took the course that seemed logical … (1 comments)
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Joyce Jewell, GRI, ePRO, ASP, ABR, SFR, RSPS
Wildwood Crest,
NJ
More about me…
Jewell Real Estate Agency
Address: 5602 New Jersey Avenue, Wildwood Crest, NJ, 08260
Office Phone: (609) 729-8505
Cell Phone: (609) 780-7131
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