$4.00 Gas

A popular topic on the housing bubble blogs is what will be the effect of expensive gasoline prices on real estate demand and prices. As far as the Jersey Shore is concerned, I think that over the long term high gas prices will persist and will depress demand in some of the areas that are furthest from NYC (but still within commuting distance.)

Ocean County has become a lot more popular over the past 10 years as a place to live and as far as I can tell, plenty of people commute to NYC each day from some of the more northern towns of Ocean County. Commuting from Brick or Jackson, I would imagine, must have seemed relatively cheap if you bought a home there three years ago, however, the cost now, with gas at over $3.00 has got to be pretty painful. I doubt too many people would pack up and move further north to shorten the daily commute and reduce commutation costs. On the other hand, there are probably families in Jersey City or Staten Island that have been thinking of moving to Toms River or Brick but are putting those plans on hold because of the increase in the cost of commuting caused by high gas prices, or the threat of higher gas prices.