Is this really the Shore? Mainland towns get popular with second-home owners

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Is Seven Mile Island, home to Stone Harbor and Avalon, becoming more like 13 Mile Island?

The people who are buying up second homes on spec at the Stone Harbor Lakes development off Route 9 in Cape May Court House in Middle Township might like to think so.

The banners along the brand new residential streets, which are an intracoastal waterway away from the barrier islands, helpfully reinforce the idea: Five miles to Avalon, Six miles to Stone Harbor, 11 miles to Cape May. Jersey Shore Living.

At least these second-home owners can afford to buy on the mainland (“off Shore” to locals), with prices starting about $800,000 in Stone Harbor Lakes, and half that in such towns as Somers Point and North Cape May. On the islands, tiny condos are going for $1.6 million, and all but the super-wealthy are being priced out.

“I do feel like we’re an extension of the island, because it’s so accessible,” said Jennifer McGraw, of York County, Pa., who scooped up one of the first townhouses at Stone Harbor Lakes last spring, after seeing a sign on Route 9 and veering off at the next dogleg to check it out. She had been renting a condo on the bay in Stone Harbor.

“I take a left on Route 9 for Avalon, a right on Route 9 for Stone Harbor,” she said. “There’s a degree of separation, but I wouldn’t say it’s a full disconnect.”

Never mind the technicality. Shore or not, they can walk to the Stone Harbor Golf Club, drive to the beach, and own a vacation home that is a fraction of the cost of one that’s actually in Stone Harbor. And although not the ocean, there is, actually, a small lake behind some of the houses.

Another cul-de-sac development is coming to Stone Harbor Lakes in three to six months. Amenities will include pickleball.

“I could never afford this on the island,” McGraw said.

At Stone Harbor Lakes, meanwhile, lumber is being dropped off daily, and cars with Pennsylvania and Delaware plates are lining driveways and model home parking lots. The 201-unit development is half-sold already.

“It’s people from all over,” said Jake Yoshioka, a salesperson at Stone Harbor Lakes, which is being built by NV Homes. “A lot of people are weighing options on and off island: a couple million or under a million off the beach.”

He shakes off the idea that Stone Harbor Lakes is not close to the beach. “We’re five miles away,” he said. “It’s a 10- or 15-minute drive, depending on if you get stopped at the lights.”

One woman from Bucks County was picking out finishes for the Stone Harbor Lakes townhouse she purchased.

She wanted to be identified only by her first name, Donna, because she said members of her family still don’t know about the decision to sell the three-bedroom condo in Wildwood to go off-island.

Even in Wildwood, a condo would cost her twice that of a four-bedroom townhouse in Stone Harbor Lakes. With grandchildren now, she wants the extra room, and the new construction with amenities is appealing.

“We’re going off-island,” she said. “Wildwood has skyrocketed. We can stay on the island and find something that needs a lot of work or come here. There’s a bike path that goes to Cape May; the zoo is right there.”

She says she definitely feels as though she’s “at the Shore,” in Stone Harbor Lakes. Even in Wildwood, they don’t go to the beach every day. “We do a lot of things off-island.”

Eventually, she says, she’ll break the news to the fam.

“We have definitely seen the off-Shore market become a second-home market,” said Ann Delaney, a Realtor at Tim Kerr Sotheby’s International Realty, using the locals’ term for the mainland. (Newer transplants and homeowners tend to say off-island.)

Delaney cited the developments near golf courses off Route 9: the Links at Avalon, Stone Harbor Lakes, and Laguna Oaks, where she estimates at least 50% are seasonal occupants.

Locals, though, are starting to feel squeezed. The influx of second-home owners turning these towns into vacation destinations is not helping with a housing crunch for year-round residents, said Middle Township Mayor Christopher Leusner.

“One of the things we’re struggling with is having housing that entry-level police officers and teachers and young professionals who are starting out can afford,” Leusner said.

“You can argue that so many second-home owners kind of drives the prices up,” he said.

The Airbnb market that used to be primarily on the islands has also shifted to the mainland, taking over homes that had been year-round rentals, he said. The housing situation may also be an issue for Cooper Health, which just purchased the local Cape Regional hospital, and is looking to attract employees to the area, Leusner said.

Over in Somers Point, across the bridge from Ocean City, Rosemary “Rosie” Evans, whose grandfather bought in 1947 and founded Gregory’s Hotel (now Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar), says her neighborhood by the Great Bay Golf Course is changing.

Some places are becoming short-term rentals for summer visitors. On her block alone, there are four homes that are now “Shore homes.”

“Many of our new neighbors are folks who sold their Ocean City properties, bought in Somers Point, and are enjoying having room for families to visit and park nearby,” she said.

On a recent visit, she pointed out the nearby properties now owned by transplants looking for places at the Shore. Two keep boats in their back yards. One took down the big old trees to build a pool, and added typical Shore house decorative touches such as lighthouses.

The houses, with backyards, driveways, and golf course views, a quick e-bike ride over the bridge to Ocean City, were purchased for prices unheard of on the islands, ranging from $328,000 to $414,000.

“Our towns are no longer the little quaint villages,” Evans said. “They’ve been discovered. A lot of times, it’s weekenders.”

“It’s a different kind of neighborliness,” she added. “They’re very nice, and happy to talk to you. But they stay together and have company come.”

One of her neighbors, Frank Puccio, a project engineer from Southampton, Bucks County, said he and his wife spend about half their time in Somers Point now.

“I didn’t want to be on the island,” he said. “I wanted to be on the bay side. The cost was obviously more palatable. I grew up all my life down the Shore. We looked for years. We looked at North Wildwood. Somers Point was always a nice place.”

Unlike the Route 9 towns farther south in Cape May County, he points out, Somers Point runs along the bay. The town has its own bayside beach and boat launch.

“We love it,” said Puccio. “We ride our bike or drive over to Ocean City. Or we got to the Somers Point public beach.”

For those driving from the Philly suburbs, Somers Point is closer than the barrier islands and towns farther south, he pointed out.

“The biggest benefit,” he said, “is it’s not a dry town like Ocean City. You can buy beer in Somers Point.”

Another Somers Point neighbor, Debbie Danchak, 57, came from North Jersey to live at the Shore after spending a month in Ocean City. She works remotely.

She has room for guests, who she says are happy to ride over the bridge to see the ocean. Nobody is expecting beach front.

“I’m right outside Ocean City, a mile from the bridge,” she said. “I have space, storage, a yard, and no crowds. I don’t have to go to the beach every day. We love Ocean City, but we were priced out.”

Michael and Terry Shields have owned in North Cape May for years and love the wineries, breweries, and small-town feel of the area (not to mention autumn). The town has lately become a popular short-term rental location (”minutes from the beach”), as well as for second-home buyers.

“People think they want to live in Stone Harbor, Sea Isle, and Avalon,” said Michael. “They see the huge crowds. It’s insane to pay what you have to pay for all the congestion. You can’t get into restaurants. The beaches are a circus. People are starting to back off. They’re moving and buying off Shore.”

He noted that Cape May residents pay significantly more for their water, due to Cape May’s desalination plant, and are required to have flood insurance.

Back in Stone Harbor Lakes, McGraw allowed that she loved renting on the bay in Stone Harbor, and misses that view, and those walks. But she drives over the bridge to Stone Harbor every morning to do yoga and ride her bike.

She muses that maybe some day she’ll return there. But for now, she’s looking to build her off-island community, not to mention equity in her house. “Before COVID, I might have had a chance for a small condo on the bay, before the real estate market went off the rails,” she said. “Some day I’ll be back on the bay.”