Ocean City Homes on the Beach is sooooo nice :)

Here is an article from the New York Times about a family that moved from Philadelphia suburb to Ocean City NJ.

Not Just a Summer Romance

SUE AND JOE CANALE’S new beach house in Ocean City, N.J., handsomely sided in gray shingles and just steps from the Boardwalk, rises four floors above sea level. The view, they say, is always changing. Sometimes, whitecaps churn. Sometimes, the ocean is a fuzzy pink blanket. Sometimes, lightning flashes above the sea and reflects on the water.

For nearly 20 years, the Canales, a couple from Huntingdon Valley, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, owned another beach house on the property. About two years ago, they decided to tear it down and build another place. They wanted a house they could live in virtually all year. Mrs. Canale loves to entertain. Mr. Canale loves to ride his bike on the Boardwalk.

“We’re from the boomer generation, and our theory with this place is to use it and enjoy it,” said Mrs. Canale, a real-estate broker and appraiser.

The Canales have company in Ocean City — and lots more than in the past. Second-home owners in this tidy family resort, 10 miles south of the Atlantic City casinos, are using their homes deeper into the fall, often through Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes well into the winter. A beach house is not just a place to catch a tan anymore.

“It used to be that people closed them up in September — closed them up and didn’t come back until the next year,” said Ann Richardson, an agent for ReMax in Ocean City. “The idea of winter at the shore was just not that popular. People would say to me, ‘You live here?’ They couldn’t imagine there was life here after Labor Day.”

Read the rest of the article from NY Times here

Nice Condo in Somers Point

Today I want to show you a condo listing that is for sale in Somers Point, NJ. Why this specific condo versus showing you a condo in Ocean City? Well, first off, I'd like to point out that this condo is on the water, 3-5 minute drive to Ocean City, boatslip, granite countertop, and more. It's quite perfect for the newly married couple that is looking for a really nice place to live. Although I could show you a home with a yard or a condo in Ocean City, I'm highlighting this specific condo in Somers Point beucase the price is a steal for the upgrades you can get in this condo. It's a 2 bedroom condo in the $300's. Naturally the price is negotiable and the buyer is wanting to get rid of this so he can move out.

Click here to see the full details and photos

I you want to have more information on this condo or have questions on how you can put a down payment and pay your monthly bills, call me at 609-425-3187.

10 Great reasons to buy homes in Somers Point and Ocean City NJ.

1. $11 Billion of new casiono development has been announced on land which is already owned by casino companies.

2. Atlantic City Employment is estimated to increase from 42,000 to 82,000

3. Revel casno will establish the North Beach area of Atlantic City as the new premier end of town, and will include 16 to 19 restaurants, 2 showrooms and 500,000 total feet of entertainment/dining/retail

4. Train srvice from Manhattan to Atlantic City is scheduled to begin before the end of the year

5. The $2 billion dollar Revel Casino is now under construction http://www.revelentertainment.com/

6. Atlantic City... topped the list of (140) metropolitan regions where prices increased - The New York Times Feb 16. 2007

7. A second home is within 2 hour drive of 15 million people, making it ideal for a weekend getaway

8. Interest rates are low

9. Prices are low

10. Beaches and entertainment every day and night!

Atlantic City New Casinos & Local Real Estate

Hello and happy Monday to you all. Last friday, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, there was an article about the casinos in Atlantic City. Four new casinos are in the works to being built; Revel, MGM Grand, Pinnacle and one more that is still of unknown name which will be built at Bader Field.

Each time a new casino has been built in Atlantic City, there has always been an increase in buyers and sellers in the area. However, with four new casinos that will be built by the year 2010-2011, there will be a high demand of realestate in this Atlantic County and Ocean City area. Here is an excerpt of the article:

Casino building jobs are plentiful: Atlantic City is planning $20 billion in projects. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
By Suzette Parmley, The Philadelphia InquirerMcClatchy-Tribune Regional News

Feb. 22--ATLANTIC CITY -- Jeffrey Barton moved to the Shore from Redondo Beach, Calif., a year ago to cash in on an unprecedented building boom here.
"I'm here for one thing," said Barton, 44, who makes $31.97 an hour as a tile finisher. "The work."
There are plans over the next four years for $20 billion worth of casino, hotel, restaurant and retail construction and renovation projects, many of which began in 2003. And in a slowing national economy, all that development is attracting construction workers from around the country.
Since arriving from Southern California, Barton has had plenty to do. His skill was recently needed on the Water Club, the $400 million hotel tower going up at the Borgata. Since January, he has been remodeling hotel suites on the 51st floor of the Dennis Hotel at Bally's casino.
When the Bally's project winds down next month, Barton hopes to land either at the Trump Taj Mahal's new hotel tower or the $2.5 billion Revel casino-resort -- one of four megacasinos proposed here.
"It's going to be nonstop for the next four or five years for sure," Barton said while recently grouting tiles as part of the Dennis Hotel's $20 million renovation that began last November.
Only Las Vegas, which currently has $35 billion worth of casino-related construction planned or under way, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, rivals what is happening at the Shore.
Atlantic City's manic pace of development is to fortify itself against new slots competition from neighboring states.
"The building is about the fact that they [casino operators] are under a lot of pressure for the convenience gambler from Pennsylvania and Delaware," said David G. Schwartz, author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, and director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. "The only real direction they can go is to have more destination gamblers, which means more hotel rooms and nongaming attractions."

Read whole Article: Click Here

Local real estate market alive and well

I read this article and I'm sure it will surprise the home buyers and sellers of homes in Somers Point NJ. Considering our bad economy right now, this article should really bring you up to speed with why it's good to buy in Atlantic County area.
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12 Reasons it's a fabulous time to buy in Atlantic County:
1. Interest rates are very low and remaining low.
2. There is a large selection as a buyer and you have a better chance of finding what you want.
3. There are fewer price wars.
4. Sellers are more motivated to make the repairs to properties than ever before.
5. Realtors, who are not quite as busy in the winter, can give you more time and attetion in your search.
6. You can probably get the price, conditions and location that you are searching for, especially if you are able to settle quickly and without too much hassle. However, in your search, remember that nothing is going to be "perfect" and sometimes you have to work with what you are able to find, or build your dream home.
7. You have more negotiating room now that you will have in a "hot" spring market (the warmer it gets; the more buers will come out)
8. It's a fabulous time to buy a condo or duplex as an investment, beucase so many people are looking to relocate and want to rent first. Yearly rentals are way up!
9. You dont have to worry about properties declining in this area. Casinos, roads, hotels, airport, shopping and everything around is improving on a daily basis and the ocean is not moving.
10. Don't look back and be sorry. Pick up the phone today and change your life.
11. Stop paying rent - a good realtor can get you into a property for not much more than a first month's rent and security deposit. Often you only need 3% of your own money for a down payment.
12. Motivated sellers will help with closing costs or assessments.
+++++++++++++++++++++ Quoted from Press of Atlantic City

Ocean City Realestate - Ignore the Headlines

I read this on TIME CNN and it definitly applies to Ocean City homes.

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When prices are falling, few people have the discipline to buy stocks, a house, gold, art or any other asset. But those who do pull the trigger excel in the long run. As John D. Rockefeller famously said, "The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets."
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If you want to read the whole article. click here

For Future Ocean City Home owners

Here are a couple videos that may help you enjoy what Ocean City NJ has to offer. For your children, friends, and family, Ocean City offers a fantastic boardwalk, beautiful beaches, theme parks (such as Gillians)overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and surfing fun. On top of that, Ocean City home owners can also enjoy the air show, golfing and so much more.

VIDEOS:
First Plungs into the water in 2008

Theme Parks of Ocean City

Ocean City History for Home Buyers

Many home buyers ask about the history of Ocean City. I found an article in regards to this topic and am posting a portion of it here. Ocean City homes have sure come a long way.

In 1700, whaler John Peck began using the barrier island as a place where he and his men could put their fresh caught whales while they went out searching for more. The island eventually became known as Peck’s Beach. After Peck’s inhabitation, the island had a few purposes: it was an Indian summer fishing camp, a place for cattle to graze and sometimes mainlanders would boat over for a picnic or to hunt. read more

Atlantic County Realestate

I read the Press of Atlantic City paper to find out an interesting article that should put smiles on everyone's faces. Ocean City realestate is similar in many aspects as Somers Point since they are neighbor cities.

Area home prices defy trend, rise 10.7%
By KEVIN POST Business Editor, 609-272-7250
Published: Thursday, February 14, 2008

Those waiting for home prices in Atlantic County to drop will have to keep waiting ... maybe a long time.
The median price of a single-family home in the metropolitan Atlantic City area - essentially the whole county - increased 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 from the prior year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

The price rise in existing homes - the second largest in the Northeast after Binghampton, N.Y. - continued and strengthened Atlantic County's trend of defying falling prices elsewhere in much of the nation. In the third quarter last year, Atlantic City-area prices had increased 6.2 percent, even as home prices nationwide fell 2 percent.

In the 150 metropolitan areas tracked by the National Realtors as a whole, home prices dropped by 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter. In the Northeast, the price decline was 4.8 percent.
The strength in the local market was no surprise to Lester Argus, president of the Atlantic City & County Board of Realtors.

"We're busy as hell right now," he said of his Argus Real Estate agency in Ventnor. "Most of the Realtors I talk to are very busy, and you see the mortgage application people with big smiles on their faces now."

The median price in the Atlantic City area - with half of houses selling for more, half for less - was $278,800 in the fourth quarter, up from $251,900 in the same period in 2006, the Realtor data showed. The fourth quarter price was also 2 percent higher than the $273,100 recorded in the third quarter of 2007.

Other areas of New Jersey covered by the Realtor survey, the largest published series of metropolitan home prices, also outperformed the nation as a whole.

Drew Fishman, current president of the New Jersey Association of Realtors and broker/sales associate with ReMax Atlantic in Northfield, pointed to home price increases in the Trenton-Ewing area (6.2 percent) and the Newark-Union area (5.3 percent) as evidence that the state home resale market is gaining strength.

"I got a call from someone this week looking for an investment property at the shore because their money wasn't working for them in the stock market," Fishman said. "If a house is priced right, with the rates as low as they are, this is the time to do it." The metro areas in the Realtor survey were about evenly divided between housing price increases and declines.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the continued difficulty in getting so-called jumbo loans had reduced the sale of higher-priced houses, bringing down median prices in many markets. "The healthiest housing markets today generally are moderately priced and are experiencing job growth and often population growth, which in turn is supporting strong price growth," Yun said in a statement.

The number of U.S. homes sold continued to fall. Existing homes nationwide sold in the fourth quarter at a rate of 4.96 million units per year, down 8.5 percent from the seasonally adjusted rate of 5.42 million units per year in the third quarter of 2007 and 20.9 percent lower than the 6.26-million-unit pace seen the year before.

Ocean City Tide Charts

Hi eveyrone! I wanted you all to know about my Ocean City Tide Charts. For my Ocean City homes customers, I send out bimonthly ocean city tide charts in the mail. The mailers are sent out with a market analysis of the the Ocean City homes that stretch from the north down to the southern tip of Ocean City. The tide chart is a front and back envelope size card that shows a month on each side. The first Ocean City tide chart of the year i send out starts for March & April. The last tide chart I send out for the year is for November & December.

For those of you who are not on my mailing list to receive the Ocean City tide chart and my letter of the price fluctuation of the Ocean City realestate market, you can simply contact me on my website at Beach 2 Bay. You can also check out on my website the online Ocean City Tide Chart.

If you want to know know more about buying properties in Ocean City, check out my Ocean City home search engine.

Ocean City Homes & 9th St Bridge

Ocean City Homes will get a nice view of the new 9th Bridge from the classic drawbridge to a big sleek smooth bridge. The Ocean City bridge is a nice site from the bay that brings back the memories of the good ole' days.

Currently with all the constuction going on, its a sore sight to many Ocean City and Somers Point residents however, with the thought of a new bridge coming on the way, it's very settling to the mind. Some people ask, "Why a new bridge?" The state called the current bridge as a hazard. The walls were too thin to prevent a car from driving off the road and the shoulders were practically touching the bridge.

However, with the new bridge being built, it will have sturdier walls, more space and even a bike path which will allow Ocean City and Somers Point residents go back and forth from the bridge. I can only imagine that the summer time will really bring smiles on the peoples' faces as they bike ride over the bay. For boaters, they won't have to wait for a drawbridge to open. The bridge will touch the skies!

For more information about the Ocean City bridge on 9th st. click here

Welcome to Ocean City NJ

Welcome to Ocean City NJ. For those of you who come here to my blog, you already know Ocean City NJ as a destination vacation area and want to know more about what I do with my clients that are interested in Ocean City, NJ Realestate.

Ocean City has many fun activities during the summer. The boardwalks get filled up with people, all the shops open up, golfing, boating, fishing, block parties and so much more. On the Ocean City NJ Tourism website, they offer the monthly events that you and your friends and family can schedule your trip around. For more information on the events going on in Ocean City NJ, click here for the Ocean City community calendar.

Winter in Ocean City is quite quiet. Most of the shops on the boardwalk are closed, not many boats around on the ocean or bay, and the population is much less. It's quite the quiet town but still offering several events:

FEBRUARY
15th & 16th - 5th Annual Ocean City Talent Show – 6pm at the Ocean City Music Pier, Moorlyn Terr. & Boardwalk. Tickets $10, available at the door. Contest to benefit the Ocean City Fine Arts League and Ocean City Special Events. For information and entry forms call 609-814-0308 or 609-525-9300.

MARCH
1st – Battle of the Bands – 6pm at the Ocean City Music Pier, Moorlyn Terr. & Boardwalk. Tickets $15, available at the door. Contest to benefit the Ocean City Fine Arts League and Ocean City Special Events. For information and entry forms call 609-814-0308 or 609-525-9300.
22nd – Breakfast with the Easter Bunny – 9am – 12noon, at the Chatterbox, 9th & Central Ave. For reservations call 609-399-0113. Sponsored by the Retail Merchants Assoc. For more information call 609-399-2269.
22nd – Woofin’ Paws Pet Fashion Show- 11am at Carey Stadium, 6th St. off of the Boardwalk. Dress your pets in their Easter’s best. For more information call 609-525-9300.
22nd – The Great Egg Hunt – 2:30pm, 11th St. – 14th St. Beach. Five (5) age groups. 50,000 eggs - 2,000 with prizes 5 grand prize bikes & other grand prizes in each age group. For more information call 609-398-4662.
23rd – Sunrise Service – A traditional non denominational service by the sea. All are welcome. 6am, Music Pier, Moorlyn Terrace and Boardwalk. For more information call 609-525-9300.
23rd – Easter Fashion Promenade – 1pm, at the Music Pier, Boardwalk & Moorlyn Terrace. Come dressed in your Easter’s best to stroll in our Fashion Promenade and meet the Easter Bunny. For more information call 609-525-9300.