May 24, 2022
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Atlantic City is the most affordable beach town in the United States to buy a home for the second year in a row, a study from Realtor.com finds. Single family homes in the city are priced at one-third of what they go for in the rest of New Jersey on average. The file image above show the casinos along Atlantic City's beach.
Affordability is relative when it comes to the buying a home at the Jersey Shore, but real estate in Atlantic City continues to be not just less expensive than elsewhere at the shore, but also cheaper than any beach town in the country, a new study shows.
For the second consecutive year, Atlantic City is the most affordable beach town in the United States, according to Realtor.com.
Homes listed for sale in Atlantic City have a price tag of $161,754 on average, which is about 35% the average home value in New Jersey.
But Atlantic City is not immune to the lack of supply and inflated prices impacting the real estate market. A single family home there is 19% more expensive than it was this time last year, and properties in Atlantic City are appreciating more quickly, too, increasing by nearly 5% more than the average New Jersey home since last year.
While bargains like a beachfront studio for $115,000 and a three-bedroom home on a boat-accessible, bayside inlets for $203,000 are still available, inventory is currently limited.
"Now, you'll see one condo left in each high-rise, where before you could go and see five or six," Nancy Vasta, a broker with Glen Cove Real Estate, told Realtor.com.
In an article about the effects inflation is having on the prices of everything at the Jersey Shore, another real estate agent told the Inquirer about selling a home in Atlantic City's Gardner Basin neighborhood for $255,000 recently, noting similar properties were listed at $150,000 six months ago.
The increased interest in Atlantic City could be due to buyers being priced out of more expensive shore destinations, like Avalon and Ocean City, to the south, and parts of Long Beach Island, to the north, where prices have surged more than 30% since last year.
Atlantic City's economic rebound from the pandemic also could be a contributor to to rising real estate prices, as customers return to the casinos on the boardwalk.
In the first three months of 2022, the city's casinos raked in $155 million in gross profits, which is up 63% compare to the same time in 2021 and up 79% from 2019, before the pandemic.
However, adjusted for inflation, the gross gaming revenue the casinos earned from in-person gamblers in April – at $235.2 million – is relatively flat compared to April 2019 – at $234.8 million.
