Build Faster Dammit!

I can’t help but think that the developers in Asbury Park are at least cognizant of the current housing bubble nationally, and at the Shore. They must be getting nervous about the progress of their construction projects, hoping that the bubble doesn’t burst before all the condos, apartments and townhouses are sold. Although I would not want to own a condo anywhere at all going into a prolonged period of declining house prices, imagine how much money you would lose in a town like Asbury. In other Shore towns, the attraction or investment appeal is generally not limited to redevelopment efforts. However, the only thing Asbury has going for it is the redevelopment of the waterfront and the redevelopment could come to a screeching halt if the bubble bursts.

Imagine being an earlier buyer in the first phase of construction of the town homes along Wesley Lake. If all the other projects in town are completed, then you are going to look like a genius because you got in early on the towns rebirth. However, it would be a nightmare if you were an early buyer, and then funding dried up so that the remaining two-thirds of the project sit there half built. Meanwhile, in other parts of town, developments take years to build or don’t get built at all because real estate is not such a hot investment anymore, and the town remains a dump.

Snip…

[Gershwin said the registration probably will be finalized in late August. The first 91 units now under construction will be sold for between $400,000 and $900,000. The sales center is 85 percent complete, he said.

"We're definitely moving full-steam ahead as best we can," Gershwin said. "We have a mason contractor working on the site of the first 91 units."]

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