💸 Have Shore landlords gone too far? | Down the Shore

Is it, at long last, a reckoning for Shore landlords? Earlier this summer, we wrote about the people who felt priced out of the Jersey Shore and were taking their vacations elsewhere.

Now, with the end of the season soon upon us, homeowners and those who manage those rental properties (many with fun, new Airbnb-like websites only without the fees) say the market has definitely softened.

I wrote this week about how many prime Shore rental weeks are vacant, and some landlords are dropping prices to get their Shore houses rented.

Others are using the houses they bought as investments to take their own families to the Jersey Shore.

The causes are, as usual, multiple.

As newer investors bought in a surging Shore market, and interest rates rose, rental rates also rose to cover those ballooning mortgages. Others saw what the newer investors were charging and raised their rates.

The last three summers were blockbusters at the Shore, as the pandemic and remote work led to everyone vacationing at the good old Jersey Shore, staying into the offseason and igniting the real estate market.

But many renters have finally balked at $5,000 a week for Wildwood and $10,000 a week for Avalon. On LBI, discounted rates are still $18,000 a week.

Others decided this was the year to go to Europe with the family and are braving crowds at the Trevi Fountain that make Ventnor’s Boardwalk on a July Saturday look lonely.

Is it just a return to normal down the Shore? Or does this signal that renters will demand lower rates once and for all or take their dollars elsewhere? Read what landlords are saying about dropping rents.

📮 Let me know what you think and I’ll include your most interesting responses. Reply to this email, or find me on Twitter or Instagram.

☀️ Looks like another beautiful weekend after a few rainy, windy days this week.

— Amy S. Rosenberg (🐦 Tweet me at @amysrosenberg. 📷 Follow me on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me at downtheshore@inquirer.com)

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🎰 Let’s play Monopoly The Atlantic City Boardwalk site of the imploded Trump Plaza, owned by Carl Icahn, is being offered for sale by Philly-based Binswanger.

🥊 Bob Kelly news Police accused a 21-year-old Sea Isle man of punching Fox29′s Bob Kelly. His name is Patrick Iannone.

🚘 In other Bob Kelly news He is wondering about the much-delayed Garden State Parkway widening in Cape May County.

🌊 Wind watch Wayne Parry of the Associated Press reports that four new wind farms are being proposed for New Jersey, two of them much further out to sea.

🌬️ Windier WaPo weighs in on wind turbines, with the thesis that Ocean City could scuttle the whole enterprise.

🏋️ Beyond gym, tan, laundry Seaside Heights, home of the original MTV Jersey Shore home, wants a new identity.

🐠 Family town The lovely Atlantic City Aquarium, closed since the pandemic, “could” reopen this fall with renovations and added exhibits.

🎡Family town? Nicholas Huba asks, has Atlantic City finally become a family resort?

🧹 Yellow Brick Road The Greater Ocean City Theatre Company and the city’s Pops orchestra present a stage adaptation of the Wizard of Oz with a live rendition of the original film score.

👶 Baby queen Ocean City’s historic Baby Parade is Aug. 10 (today!) at 10:30 a.m., presided over, I kid you not — and this is a tradition dating back to 1929 — this year’s Queen Infanta.

🤠 Beach country The Tidal Wave country music festival, with headliners Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, and Thomas Rhett, is on the beach in Atlantic City.

✈️ Air Show The Atlantic City Air Show is officially Wednesday, Aug. 16, but practice runs mean lots to watch in the days leading up. Here’s a guide.

👟 Start training for North Wildwood’s Your First Mud Run.

🏆 Wiffle Ball classic in Sea Isle, followed by Beatlemania under the stars. (Or cover band OK Otter at Sea Isle’s Oar House Pub).

🍩 Doughnuts down the Shore: Philly’s Federal Donuts will be at Tony’s Baltimore Grill on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Piney (noun). A Pine Barrens resident or native, someone who embraces Pine Barrens culture, “a word that’s been used as both a put-down by outsiders and a badge of pride by locals over the last couple centuries,” says The Inquirer’s Jason Nark.

Lewis, a lifelong resident of New Egypt, is a self-professed “piney.”

Read Nark’s story about Piney magic and the effort to reclaim the word piney.

Last week’s pirate history lesson seemed to stump a lot of people. Bill Ross was first with the correct answer: Edward Teach (Blackbeard) left his treasure near Higbee Beach, though legend has it that Captain Kidd also left some treasure nearby in Cape May Point.

This week’s question:

Which of the following is NOT the name of a legendary Jersey Shore cover band?

A. The Usual Suspects

B. Don’t Call Me Francis

C. The Jersey Girls

D. Mister GreenGenes

E. Secret Service

F. Juliano Brothers

G. OK Otter

If you think you know the answer, email me here for a possible shout-out.

Lots of response to the question about whose responsibility it is to clean after a rental: the renter or the landlord.

From Kathleen Schoettler: “Yes tenants should leave the house trash free, and remove any food that they brought. However the rental fee should include professional house cleaning. If linens are provided, they should be washed and placed where they belong.”

From “for 450″: “As someone who cleans a rental, I think renters should clean up after themselves, wiping the counters and returning the property to the way it was found. They are not expected to clean bathrooms but picking up crumbs and rinsing sand is not too much to ask.”

From: Kathleen Peters: “You have go to be kidding me! With what the price of the rentals are, the landlords have the nerve to expect the renters to deep clean at the end of their stay? My brother had a house in the country as an Airbnb and he always had a cleaning service clean after each stay whether it was one night or longer. He knew his ratings were important and having a clean house was a big factor. I think these landlords need to be rated. I would not trust that the place was really clean if I was depending on the previous renter to clean it and I don’t know anyone who would!”

Well alright then.

This week’s question: Are all the cabanas and tents getting out of hand?

Listen, this is an old problem, and I wrote about the phenomenon of “beach-spreading” here. But those new Cool Cabanas are multiplying like rabbits (which are also multiplying all over the barrier islands), and it is getting a little, let’s say, a bit overbuilt on the sands. Doesn’t bother me really, I mind my own business, and to be honest, I think I may want one.

What do you think? Let me know by replying to this email.

So Gail Pontuto sends this memory that is one of those the more things change, the more things stay the same.

So it’s 1967 and I am 15 yrs. old spending the entire summer at our shore home at 36th and Asbury Avenue in O.C. Yes, it was a charmed life proving that youth is indeed wasted on the young at THE Shore in the summer. I am on the OC boardwalk wearing a Navy Blue Peacoat, very “in”. I stop at the 9th Street Pavilion (Shriver’s) to watch the Hootenany until the “fuzz” show up and chase them off the Boardwalk. Well, it IS Ocean City. No long hair “outsiders” allowed . They were actually locals who just happened to be teenagers that played guitars. I meet my friend, Larry, and we check out the Arcade (Jillians or something like that) at 12th Street. There is Skee Ball, Air Hockey & a few amusement games. Best of all is Pinball! I wasn’t too bad, Larry was a master. It’s getting late (5 at least). Time to get back to 9th street, get a slice & a Birch Beer at Mack & Manco’s Pizza, now Manco & Manco, what happened to Mack? [Editor’s note: Mack is in Wildwood], run down the Boardwalk ramp and wait for the Jitney: ride all the way South to 34th & the short walk home. Yep, charmed life indeed.

📮 Send us your Shore memory in 200 words, tell us how the Shore taps into something deep for you, and we will publish them in this space. Send them for chance to be featured here.

👋 Can’t believe it’s mid-August already!