By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City’s housing market is red hot.
A surge in property sales and rentals is being driven by the desire of city dwellers who want to work, live or vacation at the shore to avoid the coronavirus pandemic, according to one real estate expert.
“They’re really from all over the place. We are seeing people from New York or upper New Jersey who want to escape – mainly from New York,” said Carol Hopely Russo, who heads the Sea Isle office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach Realtors.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio said the real estate boom benefits Sea Isle in two major ways: It offers second homeowners a haven to enjoy themselves for extended getaways and also gives businesses the boost they so desperately need amid the pandemic.
“It will help the business community, which has had a difficult time this year. Many small businesses weren’t able to open. I think it will help everyone to keep the economy going, because the community has suffered,” Desiderio said in an interview Monday.
Home buyers have also accelerated their plans to move to the shore following a drop in mortgage rates, now at a historic low. They are also willing to withdraw money from their investment accounts to buy a vacation retreat following the stock market’s recent run-up, Hopely Russo explained.
“Everybody wants to get out of their primary homes and see something else for a change of scenery,” she said.
However, demand is so heavy for home sales and rental properties that there is a shortage of inventory. The supply of homes for sale is at historically low levels, Hopely Russo noted.
“We have an all-time low inventory,” she said. “Even my 40-plus-year sales agents have never seen it like this.”
On average, there are only about 40 homes for sale now on the island, compared to the usual number of well over 100, she pointed out.
Desiderio said he understands that the number of properties for sale has dropped even lower than the figures cited by Hopely Russo.
“I’ve heard there are 22 properties on the market at this time,” he said. “They are going for the listing price or higher, which is good for the seller and those coming to Sea Isle for all that we offer.”
The rush to buy shore homes also means that deals are closing fast and that multiple offers are made for each property. Hopely Russo said homes are often drawing three or four competing offers and are selling within a week, compared to the usual timeframe of 60 to 120 days.
Sea Isle’s home values have been climbing to the point where half of the properties on the market are now selling for $1 million or above, Hopely Russo said. She called the $600,000 to $700,000 price range “the sweet spot.”
Real estate companies are not the only ones benefiting from the jump in sales. Attorneys, home inspectors, contractors and insurance adjusters are among those who are also capitalizing on the trend, Hopely Russo said.
She noted that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach Realtors once had to contact four different attorneys for one sale because everyone was so backed up handling other real estate deals.
Bernie Booth, who has operated a beachfront hotdog stand in Sea Isle for 31 years, said he is planning to keep his Bernie’s Beach Dogs location at 85th Street open past Labor Day because of the high volume of visitors expected after the holiday.
“A lot of realtors are telling me that their phones are ringing off the hook because of all of the people coming down here,” Booth said.
Other Jersey Shore communities are experiencing increases in home sales during the pandemic. Figures compiled by the industry group New Jersey Realtors show that median sales prices in Cape May County rose nearly 37 percent in June compared to the same period last year, according to media reports.
Even before the pandemic struck, home construction was on the upswing in Sea Isle. Figures released by the city’s Construction Office for 2019 illustrate that the city continues to enjoy a strong housing market that combines single-family homes with the ever-popular duplexes.
Between 2008 and 2018, an average of 86 residential units were built each year in Sea Isle, a figure that reflected consistency in the market.
In 2019, a total of 86 new residential units were built, a 9 percent increase over the 79 new housing units in 2018, statistics show.
Also working in Sea Isle’s favor is a much greater demand for rental properties – another trend attributed to people in major cities or the suburbs flocking to the shore to escape the pandemic.
Normally, the peak summer tourism season ends after Labor Day weekend, but visitors are now seeking rental properties well into September, October or even in winter, Hopely Russo said.
“The rentals are going deeper into fall. People are actually asking for winter rentals,” she said. “We’re seeing things we haven’t seen in previous years.”
Sea Isle, similar to other Jersey Shore towns, is becoming a refuge for people who are working remotely or families whose children will be doing online learning instead of returning to school because of the pandemic.
“I’ve heard a number of people, second homeowners in Sea Isle, saying they will stay until at least November. They are teachers or wives of teachers or work from home,” Desiderio said.
However, rental properties are also becoming increasingly harder to find amid the jump in demand. Hopely Russo said her company has been reaching out to Sea Isle rental owners to see if they would be willing to extend their season to boost the supply.
“Usually, at this time it slows down. But it hasn’t,” she said of the demand for rentals.
