South Jersey shore rentals, sales up despite cold snowy winter

Listen
Drivers are shown on their way to Seaside Heights

Drivers are shown on their way to Seaside Heights, N.J. (Bas Slabbers for WHYY, file)

Even though snowy weather has not left the region, people are making their summer housing arrangements at the Jersey Shore.

The numbers show a continued rebound since Superstorm Sandy struck in October 2012. 

Steve Booth of Berkshire Hathaway-Prudential Fox and Roach Realtors in Ocean City, N.J., says his sales and even rentals are way ahead of a year ago.

“So I’m going back and looking at two years ago and we’re ahead of two years ago as well,” Booth noted with surprise. “So considering the fact that each weekend we’ve dealt with snow with ice with cold weather, for us to be equal to two years ago I would have been happy but to be ahead we’re real happy with what’s looking forward.”

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

Because snowy weather has discouraged some from driving to the shore to check out properties, Booth says there are many more people renting based on what they see online. He adds

He has not seen any influx of North Jersey renters coming south because their usual destinations are still recovering from Sandy.

“We thought we would have had many more people from the North Jersey/New York area down here because of damage to the shore areas. Didn’t really see much of an uptick last year or this year as well.”

Booth says the most in-demand weeks tend to be at the end of July and early August.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal