🐟 The floundering rental market | Down the Shore

The cracks began to show last summer. After a couple years of heady economics — with the pandemic sending people to the Shore in droves, buying up real estate, moving there year round, and forgoing fancier vacations — reality is setting in.

By some measures, the damage may have already been done. While Shore locals are not shooting water guns and shouting at tourists like they are in Barcelona, some of the same dynamics are at play. Property values have ballooned to the point where a typical family can no longer afford a house in some of the Shore areas that have always nurtured robust local communities. But maybe a change is on the horizon.

Maria Sacco Handle, a dynamo real estate agent in Brigantine, has been counseling clients since before the summer, when their rental bookings were 60% off. Understandable when you learn that in 2019 there were 500 rentals on the island. Now, there are 950 registered rentals.

She took us to see one prime rental property sitting empty in July, with weekly prices that once were $10,000 but now offered for $4,900. She’s constantly urging owners to be more realistic about pricing, to offer amenities, to be flexible about dates and minimum stays.

Her final advice was to consider selling. Handle says she’s seeing an increase in people who bought high, at high interest rates, only to find that the dream of rental money coming in droves is more complicated.

Will families or less wealthy people be able to reclaim the Jersey Shore? Or is it lost to all but the wealthiest? Read my story on the Jersey Shore’s floundering rental market.

📮 Should there be a return to affordability and year-round towns at the Jersey Shore, or are rising property values where it’s at? Let me know what you think by replying to this email. I’ll include the most interesting responses. Have ideas or news tips about the Shore or this newsletter? Send them to me here.

🌦️ Pretty spectacular July so far, with some rain in the forecast. But you never know!

— Amy S. Rosenberg (Find me at @amysrosenberg, on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me here.)

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💵 Cash is king: My colleagues Erin McCarthy and Ariana Perez-Castells have the buzzy story about boardwalk shops more and more charging a fee if you use a credit card.

🪂 Grounded: Atlantic City’s popular Air Show has been canceled.

🌮 Tacocat in Margate suddenly closed its doors, citing difficulties in staffing and exhaustion.

🏈 Kelce overload? One Sea Isle regular is sick of Kelce mania. He told me: “All people want to do is talk about it. It comes up way too often. We’re at Mike’s Seafood, and the Kelces come in and sit down. Here we go. Everyone take out their phones.” Meanwhile, Kylie worked out at Stride fitness studio in Sea Isle.

🍺 Jason Kelce, meanwhile, loves his new Sea Isle-London-centric post-Eagles life but misses the guys.

🚨 Wildwood shooting on Tuesday left a female bystander in critical condition.

🐶 Ocean City beach patrol rescued two boaters and their dog.

🍝 Try a new restaurant: Michael Klein reports on six intriguing new ones, including Angeloni’s Club Madrid in Atlantic City and the long-awaited Lamberti’s in Margate.

🍴 Eat like LaBan: Craig LaBan’s essential Shore restaurants from Ventnor to Cape May.

🍸 Jenn’s bars: Jenn Ladd sampled 13 bars from Brigantine to Long Beach Island, and I am stunned to learn that Allen’s Clam Bar in New Gretna is no longer a BYO. Cocktails and clams!

📖 Read like a local: Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation, the intimate, provocative, and well-reviewed book by Ventnor’s own Emily Van Duyne.

🪁 Discover Lakes Bay and Extreme Windsurfing, the semi-secret spot in West Atlantic City along the Black Horse Pike where you can rent stand-up paddleboards, and go windsurfing and wing foiling.

Whole half, noun. I had to explain this one this week to guests. When ordering a sub (they’re subs down here), you do not order a whole. You order a half. Then you can eat a whole half and that’s basically a whole sub. If you order a whole, you’re going to get two halfs wrapped separately.

A drink at the newly reimagined Angeloni’s Club Madrid in Atlantic City mixes Averna and Cutty Sark and is called 26 N. Georgia Ave., in homage to the Ducktown home of which Philly mob boss?

A. Nucky Johnson

B. Nicky Scarfo

C. Philip Testa

D. Angelo Bruno

If you think you know the answer, click on this story to find out. Or take a chance and email us the answer for a possible shout out.

Earlier, I made several predictions for this summer’s shore season. Here’s a periodic update on how I did.

We’ll revisit my other predictions in future newsletters. Read them all here.

Kathy Le, 40, had worked in her family’s nail salons since she was 16. But this year, she and her husband, a casino dealer, opened up the lovely Sunday Teahouse in Brigantine, a modern Asian kitchen featuring boba teas, Vietnamese iced coffee, and Vietnamese street food.

Favorite beach: We go down right down to 11th Street in Brigantine. It’s so close to our place. We have our bathroom here, parking. It’s so clean in that area.

Favorite summer breakfast: I have to say Pirates Den. I get the lox Benedict. And I have to throw in Velo Cafe in Ventnor. At Velo, I get the Orale Benedict, with roasted sweet potato.

Perfect beach day: My Vietnamese hoagie for lunch. Our coffee. The girls will bring their strawberry refreshment. I honestly go around like 2, 3 o’clock when the sun is not as strong. Clean up here and head out like 4-ish. Sit there until like 8, 8:30 p.m.

Perfect night at the Shore: Never leave Brigantine. I’m telling you, it’s perfect. We’ll leave our beach stuff and walk over to the La Scala’s restaurant. Walk right back to our set up at the beach.

Best Shore sandwich: The Vietnamese BBQ pork hoagie at Sunday Teahouse. At Sandy Jack’s, the veggie delight.

When summer approaches, I feel … Excited. It’s alive. The whole vibe is so happy. It’s like a happy time. The kids are out of school. Everyone is just happy, not grumpy.

It wouldn’t be the Jersey Shore without ... the boardwalk, the shops, and food. Funnel cake, maybe.

Best thing for kids to do at the Shore: Beach and then ice cream.

Surfing or fishing? Surfing.

Sunrise or sunset? Sunset.

Shore pet peeves? I don’t. I’m just happy that I’m healthy, my family is healthy. I can’t complain. I do have one. The driving. it’s so dangerous for the kids. They need to calm down. You’re on vacation. Where are you going? It’s very nerve-wracking.

The Shore could be improved if... if everyone would just slow down and just be happy. Take in the beautiful weather and the beach and you’re on vacation. Just calm down. There’s no rush.

Like me, readers loved Tommy Rowan’s story in last week’s newsletter about Joe Jaws, whose life was hijacked by a certain movie. Chris Judd of Harrisburg sent in this memory:

I was 10 when Jaws came out, so too young to see it. But Jaws 2? We all saw that teenage smorgasbord in 1978. That had a crazy body count. It dominated our Brigantine vacation that year. A boogie board is a nice replica of an approaching shark. Just push down on one end and the “mouth” opens up to consume a cousin or two.

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 during the summer.

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