While Hurricane Sandy devastated large portions of New Jersey’s 127-mile shoreline, known as the “Jersey Shore,” in October 2012, real estate activity is picking back up in the region.
The storm damaged or wiped out 346,000 homes in New Jersey, but developers, agents and vacationers are turning their sights to the Jersey Shore ahead of summer, according to the New York Times.
Sandy cleared the real estate slate for an area that had run out of space. Some hard-hit areas — like Ortley Beach — are seeing their former blue-collar character slip away as developers build new homes catering to a wealthier clientele.
“You just stepped the entire gentrification of Ortley Beach forward five years because everything had to be rebuilt,” Eric J. Birchler, owner a brokerage that operates in the Ortley Beach area, told the Times.
In some locations affected by the storm — which may be particularly at risk in future storms, especially in light of projected sea-level rise — prices have dropped, giving buyers open to risk an opportunity to nab vacation homes they might not otherwise be able to afford.
Source: New York Times
