Signs of a Healthy Demand

Although property prices along the Jersey beaches have reached seemingly ridiculous heights, the real estate boom seems to have done some good for a few of the perennially poorer towns. In particular, Asbury Park looks like it is about to emerge from its forty year slide into misery and decay. Another town that has improved and actually looks inviting, at least along Ocean Avenue, is Long Branch. These towns look a lot better than they did only five years ago. However, its seems Asbury and Long Branch could fall harder in a housing downturn compared to other shore areas since the towns still lack the ability to attract family’s leaving Manhattan, given the poorly performing school systems.

Other towns that look like they have benefited from the housing boom include those on the Bay Shore, from Keyport to the Highlands. Parts of the Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, seem to be doing well because family’s were priced out of the nicer parts of Middletown, Fair Haven, Shrewsbury, Little Silver and Rumson. Also, some of the older families that have lived between the two rivers (Navesink and Shrewsbury) for years, and that no longer have to worry about schools, have taken profits recently on their multi-million dollar estates and moved into smaller homes in Atlantic Highlands and Highlands that have Atlantic Ocean views.