Jersey Shore winter rental bargains are about to run out; who lives there?
Ava Dolias found a two-bedroom apartment across the street from the Long Branch beach last September for $1,850 a month and split the rent with her boyfriend, giving her some financial breathing room while she continued to go to school.
But her lease expires at the end of May, and she can't afford the apartment during the summer. So she has begun to plan her next move, searching the area on Zillow in hopes of finding a new apartment she can afford.
"It's so difficult," said Dolias, 20. "The cheapest I can find currently is $2,400, just for one bedroom. And I'm (thinking), 'This is ridiculous.'"
Dolias is among the residents who are taking advantage of winter rentals during the eight-month offseason when the Jersey Shore's expensive vacation homes are available for a fraction of the cost.
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The apartments long have been way stations for middle- and low-income residents hoping to get on their feet. But with their leases expiring by Memorial Day, renters are struggling to find an affordable, long-term option in the Shore's hot real estate market.
Their experience is a sign of the times. While the supply of affordable, year-round apartments hasn't kept up with the demand, the Jersey Shore has seen an influx of buyers during the past decade who have purchased vacation homes that they rent out when they aren't using them.
The result: Owners of vacation homes are finding they can earn extra money during the winter, before renting them for top-dollar during the the busy summer tourism season.
"Sometimes these young couples wind up going back to their parents' house,'" said Katora Yim, owner of Katora Realty in Bradley Beach, where vacation homes aren't uncommon. "Sometimes they go down to a different state and then wind up coming back" when the peak season is over.
These days, the chance to live in a winter rental, a blessing just a few months ago, is turning into a curse.
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'What am I going to do?'
Laura Pascal, 56, has a house outside of Philadelphia, but she has been considering a permanent move to the Shore to be close to the beach and the Asbury Park music scene to start a new chapter in her life.
She rented a house in Avon from September until June for less than $2,000 a month, utilities included with the exception of cable. And she has become more certain the past few months that her decision to move is the right one.
With summer drawing near and her lease coming to an end, Pascal has begun to search for an annual rental. She scours through Zillow, HotPads, Nextdoor and Trulia for vacancies, hoping to find a reasonable apartment with parking.
But she has become increasingly frustrated, finding monthly rents ranging from $1,900 to $4,500. One-bedroom apartments in Asbury Park with less than 600 square feet are on the market for $2,300 a month, a price that, by the government's measure, would be considered unaffordable for anyone with a household income of less than $90,000 a year.
"I'm feeling stressed. What am I going to do?" said Pascal, a school counselor. "That's literally the conversation I have in my head every night."
New Jersey renters appear to be getting squeezed. Central Jersey, for example, was the 12th-most competitive apartment market in the nation, with an occupancy rate of 95.9% and 10 prospective renters for each apartment, according to a report by RentCafe, an apartment search site.
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The outsized demand has pushed prices higher. The median rent in the state is $2,500, up 6% from a year ago, according to Zillow, a real estate company. And Monmouth and Ocean County towns are more expensive. In Sea Bright, the median rent is $3,729; in Belmar, the median rent is $3,500; in Seaside Heights, it is $2,600.
Meanwhile, the inventory of seasonal rentals has grown, particularly since 2012, when many Shore homes were devastated by superstorm Sandy and needed rebuilding. By 2020, 54% of the homes in New Jersey's 51 Shore towns were empty during the off-season, up from 41.2% 20 years earlier, a report by New Jersey Future found.
The larger supply of vacation homes has provided renters with an affordable option during the fall, winter and spring, but it comes with a catch: When the summer rolls around, and landlords can charge a premium to deep-pocketed visitors on vacation, winter renters need to move out.
Rents drop by 70%
Billy Butler, a real estate agent with Crossroads Realty in Lavallette, rents a two-family home that he owns in Seaside Heights and manages as many as 20 vacation homes for other people.
Vacation home owners typically charge enough during the three-month summer season to cover their expenses, before discounting the price by as much as 70% for the winter, Butler said.
Winter rentals, he said, bring a mix of tenants: people who sold their homes and need a temporary place to stay until they can buy another one; people visiting families during the holidays; travel nurses working at nearby hospitals; and a cross-section of residents relieved to find an affordable place to stay, even if it is for a short time.
"Just finding a (year-round) apartment to rent or a house to rent, it's very difficult," Butler said. "There's just such a low inventory of those."
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Ava Dolias is seeing for herself just how difficult it is. When summer arrives, the rent for her apartment will jump to more than $5,000 a month. She can't afford to stay.
Dolias works part-time as a nanny and goes to school part-time, making the 45-minute commute to Toms River, where she is studying to become a medical assistant. She would like to find a reasonable apartment where she can live, but so far, she hasn't found any options.
"I absolutely love the place, love the area, the landlord is the greatest, but when May 31 comes around, you're looking for a new place," Dolias said. "And since it's summertime, a lot of places spike their prices up."
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore winter rentals: Bargains now, but what happens in summer?
