The home I bought on LBI in December of 2020 is now worth double. Though it’s probably not sustainable, I think there’s a lot of pent up demand that will buy any dip here
I was one of them but am not now. I am very happy renting for 2 weeks. No reason to own unless I think the value will go up.
Prices in those beach towns are insane. Prices can drop significantly and still be expensive.
It is also amazing how much sellers/buyers differ in the same towns. We started our search to stay in NJ and started looking down in the Southern Beach areas but even found those to be $700k fixer uppers with $12-18k in taxes. And we even had some open houses where there would be a line outside waiting and selling agents requiring pre quals(which are worthless) and asking if we would be ready to make an over asking offer on the house today. If the answer was no, then they didn't want you to do a walk through.
So, we decided on Delaware- and we ran into some sellers that were asking $40-50k over their nearest comp and not willing to negotiate. It seems that these sellers either, paid too much themselves or did a home improvement and expect almost double their investment back. And then, you have someone like our sellers- they tried to play hardball - we had offered $70k under. House is only 10 years old. They came back with $40k under but we had to wave inspection. Which was odd- house is relatively new- and showed very well with nothing that could be obvious. So- that request actually made us question "what are they trying to hide?"
We came back that we would not wave inspection and split the difference on price- $55k under asking. Inspection did find a few things that would have cost us between $10-15k to fix...Sellers did the repairs and closed on the deal.
So, we decided on Delaware- and we ran into some sellers that were asking $40-50k over their nearest comp and not willing to negotiate. It seems that these sellers either, paid too much themselves or did a home improvement and expect almost double their investment back. And then, you have someone like our sellers- they tried to play hardball - we had offered $70k under. House is only 10 years old. They came back with $40k under but we had to wave inspection. Which was odd- house is relatively new- and showed very well with nothing that could be obvious. So- that request actually made us question "what are they trying to hide?"
We came back that we would not wave inspection and split the difference on price- $55k under asking. Inspection did find a few things that would have cost us between $10-15k to fix...Sellers did the repairs and closed on the deal.
When the recession hits and it very likely will with the inverted bond yield curve rearing its head again recently (not a given, but a strong indicator), combined with Trump's employment cuts, tariffs, and general chaos, we'll see those interest rates drop back down, but I would also expect to see housing prices drop at least some as demand will likely drop (even if inventory isn't much higher). We'll see of course.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/26/fed...ssion-indicator-is-flashing-danger-again.html
Definitely not over. I know of many other people fully remote. And I know many people "RTO" who have done no such thing.
Yes, the coming recession will give certain companies what they view as a "right" to bully their employees in a way they couldn't before...but there's still enough places willing to welcome people back.
And when you have a lot of places truly hybrid to go to NYC or Philly from DTS 2x a week, the demand isn't going to drop too hard...though hopefully just hard enough for me to land my second place lol.
We moved to Middletown...good news, bad news. The good is that it is only 20 minutes off the DE Mem bridge so very close to NJ. Also, one of the more NJ feeling areas and if you have school aged kids- best schools in the state.
Bad news, while still have very low property taxes compared to NJ, New Castle County/Middletown, have the highest property tax in the state.
And it is f-ing windy every single day! lol
I have no data on this but I've wondered if the pandemic introduced folks that didn't consider LBI before to how great a place it is. Remember there was a time early covid when international travel was either banned or a mess or both. If that's the case it explains some of the price increase- a whole new set of buyers/renters than before who were 'forced' into 'local' vacations and kept it going. Just a theory.
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I settled the bet. Made the donation. I don’t need to apologize because we discussed it like adults
