Monmouth County Real Estate

It is without question that Asbury Park, NJ is catching on! When you walk down the rehibilitated areas, you see top notch dining, amazing yet querky bars & grills, yoga studios, artist’s shops, and musical events.

Asbury Park has come back as one of the most progressive and open-minded small cities in the country! Asbury Park has maybe even surpassed the “competition” such as Burlington, Vermont and it is being seen that the artsy and hipster types (20, early 30-something types) are relocating from Brooklyn!

The triCity News reports that if Asbury Park is left to prosper without the expectation to conform to the likes of other suburban Monmouth and Ocean County towns, then Asbury will continue to build up an alternatibe and urban-centric community of those who love diveristy of a progressive city. Asbury Park has worked hard against suburban conformity. “The suburban population in New Jersey certainly did not get Asbury Park back to where it is now. In fact, they held the city down for decades as the readership of the Asbury Park Press rejected Asbury Park, and harshly trashed it. That same narrow-mindedness could now destroy all that’s been achieved,” reports the triCity News.

Asbury Park is seeing creative young people (from Brooklyn specifically) loking for hte next big AFFORDABLE thing, just like when everyone started to leave Manhattan for Brooklyn 20 years ago. They are starting to move in and other friends from Brooklyn are coming down to visit. The consensus is that this could trigger something big. If Asbury catches on as the affordable alternative to Brooklyn, it’s all over… That population is a bigger pool of people willing to live here and visit than those from the suburbs of Monmouth and Ocean County. This young demographic can easily take over large swaths of Asbury, just like they did in sections of Brooklyn.

Local realtors, such as myself, are seeing an influx with renters and first-time homebuyers from Brooklyn who are about 30 years old. We are seeing musicians, artists, and teachers relocating and it is basic economics driving the trend. Asbury Park is cheaper than Brooklyn, and it doesn’t hurt that Asbury has it own unique cool dynamic as it emerges in a new form. Realtors are running out of rental inventory for the Brooklynites even!

According to the triCity News, Bond Street Bar just opened a couple of months ago and it’s become a center for the alternative and creative community. It’s the perfect place to spot the Brooklyn trend. They are starting to call it Little Brooklyn. At Bond Street, there are so many people coming from there. That is all they are seeing on their IDs. And, the age range is 21-30. “The young crown will keep coming back. They’re not scared to jump on a train and travel down just for the day or for the weekend. What they spend here in a weekend, they’re spending in a half a day in Brooklyn. It will be interesting to see this trend rise!

I stumbled upon this article about my stomping ground. Down in Charlotte, NC, readers of the Charlotte Observer are reading about Asbury Park, NJ! Check out what that writer has to say…

“If you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, have we got a trip for you.

Even if your reaction to that famous salutation is “Hi!” “Hey!” or “Huh?” the folks in Asbury Park will be equally happy to meet you.

This seaside community, indelibly linked to Springsteen’s 1973 debut album, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.,” has plenty to offer – whether you’re among the fans making pilgrimages or just want to have fun, relax and enjoy the beach.

Just ask the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons.

“It’s the most beautiful beach and the most beautiful boardwalk,” Clemons said in a recent interview.

Jersey Shore author-historian Stan Goldstein says the boardwalk is the “best it’s been in more than 30 years.”

Goldstein remembers the giant Exxon sign that brought this city its light and the now-razed Flamingo motel, whose name may have inspired the fictitious Flamingo Lane of Springsteen’s song “Jungleland.”

Clemons fondly recalls a carousel with handcrafted horses and driving around an informal route known as “the circuit,” referred to in Springsteen’s “Night” and “4th of July, Asbury Park.”

That was before Asbury Park became a city of ruins.

Race riots in 1970 “sucked all the life right out of Asbury Park,” says Clemons. Its swan song “was really, really sad.”

“For at least 20 years, it was a ghost town,” says Goldstein.

The city has undergone a recent renaissance. Upscale development has snowballed.

“It’s all coming back now; that’s exciting,” says Clemons, though he impishly denounces the city’s recent rejection of a topless beach proposal.

The pristine sand, trendy but relaxed bars and cafes, the Silverball pinball museum (1000 Ocean Ave.) and an adorable boardwalk water park for kids are hallmarks of the resurrection.

Springsteen recently appeared at the Stone Pony (913 Ocean Ave.) with Alejandro Escovedo. The Paramount and Convention Hall (both at 1300 Ocean Ave.) are also thriving.

The former Upstage Club (702 Cookman Ave.) is now in the hands of a music lover who wants to bring it to life again. Memorabilia is stuck, shrine-like, over its storefront glass. The oasis nurtured a long-haired, scrawny young Springsteen as well as E Streeters Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, David Sancious and Garry Tallent.

The former Student Prince (911 Kingsley St.) recently reopened as a gay bar named Swell.

Clemons’ book, “Big Man,” recounts how he dropped by the Student Prince during a break from his appearance at the Wonder Bar (still lively, at Fifth and Ocean). As he strode in and asked to play with Springsteen for the very first time, a wind gust blew the door off.

There’s a song, historical or photographic tie-in at every turn.

For total immersion, make an appointment to see the public library’s Springsteen Special Collection. It contains “more stuff on myself and the band than every place except my mother’s basement,” Springsteen once said.

Or just hit some haunts:

The Palace, an indoor amusement park mentioned in Springsteen lyrics, is gone but not forgotten. Located at Kingsley Street, between Lake and Cookman avenues, its exterior bore the words “Skooter” and “Tunnel of Love.”

“The boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers along the shore, chasin’ all them silly New York girls…” The casino’s art-adorned passageway links Asbury’s southern boardwalk to Ocean Grove. That’s the hometown of Southside Johnny Lyon, who still whips fans into a frenzy with his Asbury Jukes.

“Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore,” a book by Goldstein and Jean Mikle ($23), describes a jillion sights all over the area, including Springsteen’s original hometown, Freehold, 18 miles inland.

Tourists also flock about six miles south to Belmar, posing for photos at a worn, white cement street marker for “E St.” Sancious, the original keyboard player, lived in the neighborhood when the E Street Band got its name.

Even without a confirmed sighting in the area, Springsteen is omnipresent. (He definitely drops by, though maybe not quite as often as eager-to-please locals might claim.)

Springsteen, with and without E Street, has performed many times at the Convention Hall and its smaller sibling, the Paramount.

The theaters – connected by a charming, indoor retail and restaurant promenade – are just steps away from the cute shack where a relative of the late Madam Marie holds court. (“Well the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do,” as Bruce’s lyrics put it.)”

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/08…

When Robin Parness Lipson walks along the boardwalk what she sees are bustling restaurants and gift shops and the energy of a bright future being shaped. And as part of that future, she sees her baby, her dream, the New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art: a glittering monument to the idea that New Jersey is not just the home of Snooki and the Situation, or feuding housewives, or the Bada Bing Club, but a place where cultured, philanthropic people can build something that makes a difference.

“We’re creating a cultural brand, and it’s going to rebrand the state,” said Ms. Lipson, the wife of a parking garage developer, who came from humble beginnings and discovered a love of contemporary art only in the last few years.

Ms. Lipson has not yet raised any of the $5 million it is projected that she will need to open the museum, nor does she have a lock on the boardwalk real estate she covets, or a team of slick consultants armed with surveys and statistics. But she is a bona fide expert at using charm, guileless candor, boundless energy and terms of endearment to bring home what she wants: a new museum on the Jersey Shore devoted to emerging artists.

“I’m blessed with this life right now,” she said recently. “And I have a choice,” she went on. “I could go to lunch and go shopping and, you know, do those things, or I can do something that might make somebody else’s life a little richer.”

New museums are not born every day, and when they are, they are usually founded either by major art patrons — Whitneys, Guggenheims, de Menils — or, as in the case of the New Museum, by a visionary curator. Ms. Lipson is neither. But she does have the support of wealthy friends with a major art collection: Michael and Susan Hort. The Horts, who appear annually on ARTnews’s list of the world’s 200 top collectors, host a popular art party, a brunch at their Tribeca loft, during the annual Armory Show.

Ms. Lipson also has a dozen young artists, curators, event planners and others who are part of her dream. These volunteers have done everything from build a Web site, njmoca.org, to plan an inaugural exhibition and gala on Oct. 23.

“It’s just so different,” Haley Mellin, a painter who is organizing the inaugural exhibition, said of Ms. Lipson’s ideas for the museum, including pop-up exhibits around the state. “I was really attracted to that vision.”

The building of her dreams is a 1920s power plant, designed by Warren & Wetmore, whose work includes Grand Central Terminal. Abandoned for 30 years, the plant is owned by the development company Madison Marquette, which owns much of the property on the boardwalk here.

Ms. Lipson tried to get a meeting with Madison Marquette’s president, Gary Mottola, for weeks to make her pitch. She finally got it on a recent morning in a sunbaked conference room. Ms. Lipson was in a black skirt and sleeveless top and big sunglasses, Mr. Mottola in a Stone PonyT-shirt; a reporter attended.

Ms. Lipson noted that while New Jersey had many regional museums, it had nothing that drew international tourism.

“Except Madam Marie,” Mr. Mottola interjected, referring to the stand of a former boardwalk fortuneteller made famous by Bruce Springsteen in his “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”

Ms. Lipson said the museum would be an economic catalyst in the way that Mass MoCA, a contemporary art museum that opened in 1999, has been in North Adams, Mass. “It was blighted; there was a high crime rate,” she said.

Mr. Mottola appeared to take umbrage. Asbury Park, he said, was “the biggest music destination in the world.” The D.J. Tiësto had recently played at the Convention Center. And celebrity glamour? What about the New Jersey Hall of Fame, which has Jack Nicholson’s second-grade report card and Susan Sarandon’s cheerleading jacket in its temporary space on the boardwalk?

He might be interested in having an art museum, he said, but “not in the context of ‘We’re blighted, this is going to make us unblighted,’ ” he said. “We’re already way past that.”

She was able to interest Mr. Mottola in hosting the inaugural gala in another one of the company’s buildings, the Paramount Theater, and she saw that as progress.

“I just have to bring him into our world,” she said.

The museum will depend on loans rather than having a collection, allowing it to operate more efficiently and avoid “the crunch situations that major museums get into,” Ms. Lipson said. As for the Horts’ collection, “If a curator comes and wants access to the collection, they can have it,” she said.

The Horts, who have a home in Monmouth Beach, are planning to support the museum, and say they feel others will too. They haven’t previously been major donors to existing museums. For Ms. Lipson, who keeps in daily touch with her young volunteers by phone, e-mail and Facebook, the museum is already bearing fruit as a community-builder.

“I’m so enriched by meeting everybody, and I’m having so much fun with this,” she said, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “I’m loving it.”

Information provided by Kate Taylor of the New York Times.

I pulled the numbers for sales on single family homes and townhomes in Asbury Park, Long Branch, and Red Bank (aka the TriCities) and want to share them with you. The number of sales are lower than June. June was supposed to be the month that all homebuyers qualifying for the tax credit had to be closed so all over the country we are seeing higher June numbers and then what seems like a sudden drop in July. If you take June out of the mix because of the homebuyer tax credit’s expected expiration, May and July are level. Analysts are expecting another spike in the numbers in September since the closing date for qualifiying home buyers for the tax credit was extended to September 30th.

Take a look at these numbers right from the multiple listings service –

July 2010 (Single Family Home Sales)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
ASB 5 $1,125,900 $225,180 $182,000
LON 3 $745,000 $248,333 $275,000
RED 7 $4,901,760 $700,251 $182,000

June 2010 (Single Family Homes)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
LON 20 $7,225,300 $361,265 $298,500
RED 9 $3,440,000 $382,222 $405,000

May 2010 (Single Family Homes)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
ASB 6 $1,058,850 $176,475 $139,950
LON 5 $1,377,000 $275,400 $250,000
RED 6 $2,292,000 $382,000 $307,250

July 2010 (Townhomes)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
ASB 6 $1,515,000 $252,500 $227,500
LON 7 $3,559,000 $508,428 $390,000
RED 1 $325,000 $325,000 $325,000

June 2010 (Townhomes)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
ASB 9 $2,491,500 $276,833 $250,000
LON 13 $6,232,500 $479,423 $410,000
RED 3 $780,000 $260,000 $225,000

May 2010 (Townhomes)
Area # of Sales Total Sales Avg Sales Median Sales
ASB 3 $766,000 $255,333 $218,000
LON 13 $6,026,500 $463,576 $460,000
RED 3 $750,000 $250,000 $189,000

Local charity Move For Hunger presents its 2nd annual Surfside Food Drive this August, to benefit the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in Neptune. Patrons of participating beach clubs and local businesses from Sandy Hook to Seaside are asked to donate unopened, non-perishable food items to be distributed to food-insecure families in need throughout our community.

“More than 125,000 people in Monmouth and Ocean Counties alone are at risk of going hungry every month – forty-percent being children,” says Adam Lowy, executive director of Move For Hunger. “We really need events like this that bring the food drive to the people. Even the smallest donations go a long way. ”

As the summer closes, we ask that instead of throwing away your unwanted food items, “please think of all those in need, and place it in a Move For Hunger box,” Lowy says.

Beginning August 15, collection boxes will be conveniently located at each donation location, courtesy of Lowy’s Moving Service, which will also deliver the donations to the food bank. “We love to be a part of these community events,” states Chris Quinlivan, manager of Surf Taco in Belmar. “It’s something we strive to do all year round, and this food drive is a really brilliant idea”.

This 3-week food drive will wrap up with a live-music event, located on the Asbury Park Boardwalk this Labor Day Weekend (Sept. 4-6). For a complete list of donation locations and details, please surf our site at www.MoveForHunger.org or contact info@MoveForHunger.

Move For Hunger is an organization that works with moving companies across the United States to collect unwanted, non-perishable food from those who are relocating and deliver it to local food banks. Founded by the Lowy family of Lowy’s Moving Service in Neptune, this one-year-old non-profit has already collected nearly 40,000 pounds of food nationwide. To date, Move For Hunger works with over 90 moving companies in 30 states, relieving those most desperate for help.

The state Department of Transportation will fix the moon-like surface of the Asbury Traffic Circle after one driver too many hit one of those door-rattling holes where routes 35 and 66 meet.

That driver was state Sen. Sean T. Kean, R-Monmouth, who contacted the DOT to get something done. The upside for drivers is the work on the circle will go far beyond the usual filling of holes and patching cracks.

“We will be rehabilitating and repaving the concrete and asphalt road surfaces and improving the existing curbs, driveways and drainage inlets at the Asbury Circle,” said Tim Greeley, a DOT spokesman.

That will mean making full-depth repairs and replacement of complete slabs of the concrete portions of the circle, if needed, and milling down the road surface three inches and repaving it, he said.

“I’m ecstatic. I called the DOT in February-March after I drove to work and noticed the state of the road was in terrible disrepair,” Kean said. “It’s good news for everyone.”

Kean, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, said his office also fielded calls from constituents about the potholes on the circle.

Municipal officials also called Kean about the rough conditions on the circle and repairs.

The circle work is being piggy-backed on a current contract the DOT has to resurface and improve sections of routes 9, 33, 34 and 66 in various parts of Monmouth County, Greeley said.

“We don’t have a construction schedule in place at this time for work at the circle, however, we anticipate the contractor to begin work at that location within a few weeks,” Greeley said.

That work will likely happen during overnight hours, Monday through Thursday nights in the summer to minimize inconvenience to Shore residents and visitors. Construction hours may be expanded to weekends after Labor Day, with a completion date in the first week of December, he said.

In the controversy over a proposed topless beach in Asbury Park, the triCityNews, my personal favorite Jersey Shore free paper, got a great compliment. A member of the city council left a voicemail when returning a triCityNews reporter’s call, saying, “I think you orchestrated this whole thing. I think you are behind this.” triCityNews commented in their latest article, “You bet we are”.

Last month, Asbury Park resident Regine Flimlin, owner of Yoga Basin, asked the City Council to formally allow a topless option for women on a quiet beach north of Convention Hall. The beach that Flimlin has suggested, is away from the busy beaches and restaurants on the boardwalk. The beach in debate, is quiet and there are no boardwalk businesses there.

No one expected the City Council to not reject the proposal without debate. Instead, they asked the city manager to prepare a report on the options and legalities for the meeting today.

Straight from the triCityNews, they immediately swung into action. “We knew how big this story could become – and how great it could be for our city. This newspaper loves to leverage our power by getting bigger media to pick up on our stories. We do it all the time. And so, it was with this topless proposal – the merits of which we’ll get to in a moment. We plastered it across the front cover a couple of weeks ago, knowing it would attract the attention of journalists in the NY region. It worked. Brian Thompson of WNBC-TV, who lives in Monmouth Beach and reads our paper, picked up on it first and broadcast the story. Then they all came charging in – channel 2, channel 7, channel 11, News 12, and Fox News. The Asbury Park Press came along huffing and puffing a week later. So, what is teh real issue driving us? The answer: This is a powerful way to associate Asbury Park with internationally known great cities. Places like Miami Beach and the cities in Europe that allow women to go topless. That’s the image we want Asbury Park to project – as a progressive and open-minded city up there with the best int he world. That’s what this is all about. If this topless option is enacted, it will become a national story. Actually, it already is. The Associated Press picked up on it and a google search shows media oulets all over the place using the AP report. Imagine how big it would become if enacted.”

The people that understand the benefit of this proposal to allow for a topless beach in Asbury Park, even if they are not the type to go topless, are the type of people that have made Asbury Park what it is today. These are people that understand what it is to be known as a progressive urban area and what the connection to European beaches and Miami Beach could do for lil ol’ Asbury Park.

Being a resident of Asbury Park, I have my view on the issue. Asbury Park is a place for broadminded people and whether or not I support a topless beach, I like the idea that creating a reputation like such places as Miami Beach and Europe as an open-minded, diverse locale, will draw more forward thinking, progressive people to the area.

triCityNews wrote a few quotes that sum up a lot of the issue for me. “If a small topless beach away from all the crowds and restaurants bothers their parents, then just don’t go north of Convention Hall. You can enjoy the rest of the city. Like 99 percent of it.”

“Asbury Park will not fall apart (if this proposal is accepted). Give us a break. People will not stop coming to the city. Those who don’t like it, simply won’t go over to that beach. And, the very few that actually stop coming will be more than outweighed by the large number of new people this will attract – both directly and indirectly. It will be big.”

Lastly, triCityNews brought up these thoughts, I had not… “On beaches in cities where this is allowed, women of all ages, shapes, and sizes go topless. Just like men do. Some are nice to look at. Some are not as much. Just like you can say about men with their shirts off. In fact, we don’t see why a little equality between the sexes wouldn’t be healthy on this issue. Even further, perhaps it’s not such a horrible thing for young women and young men to see older women comfortable with their bodies in this way just like men. What’s so awful about that?”

The City Council was meeting on the 7th of July so I will certainly keep you posted on the progress. I would love to hear your opinions on this issue.

I don’t think we can ask for a better weather forecast for the Jersey Shore this Holiday weekend. As we celebrate the 4th of July in New Jersey, we are looking at clear skies and highs in the 80s! Perfect beach and boardwalk weather. Get those grills ready and start soaking the sangria fruit because we are expecting a great weekend.

If you are looking for some great spots around the Jersey Shore this weekend to view some fireworks, two of the biggest are in Red Bank and Long Branch, part of my tri-cities area!

The KaBoom! Fireworks Committee is pleased to announce the launch of a three-day event of fun, music, and fireworks in Red Bank. Kicking off on Thursday, July 1st is KaBoomFest! Amusements, an area of rides and games of chance for kids of all ages.
The KaBoom! Rock the River concert on Friday, July 2nd is a 4-hour showcase of up and coming recording artists from the Jersey Shore.
The festival concludes with Kaboom! Fireworks on the Navesink on July 3rd. The 51st annual fireworks display in Red Bank and the largest in New Jersey.
For more info http://kaboomfireworks.org/index.php?cid…

Celebrate July 4th At The 20TH Annual Oceanfest. It’s the biggest seasonal event on the Jersey Shore!! In fact, it’s the biggest Independence Day celebration anywhere in New Jersey, and it happens every July 4th right here in Long Branch.
Each year since 1990, crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands have descended upon the city’s ocean-front promenade from points all over the Mid-Atlantic region for Oceanfest—an all-day, family-friendly festival that brings together the most memorable sights, sounds and sensations of the summer season.
Not just a music or food festival; much more than a craft sale or street fair, Oceanfest combines the best parts of everyone’s favorite community and cultural events—and caps it all off with the most spectacular fireworks display you’ll see anywhere, along the Jersey coast.
At Oceanfest, visitors can stroll the famous beachfront boards, take in the famous views, enjoy performances by dancers, musicians, clowns and children’s entertainment. Sample from a smorgasbord of food vendors, and check out the wares of crafters from all over the northeast. You can even see a sand sculpture demonstration, meet a familiar costumed character, and catch some cool ocean breezes.
The festival will be held July 4th from 10 am to 10 pm, rain or shine. Oceanfest is a free, family-friendly celebration that takes place along the half-mile stretch of the Oceanfront Promenade between Seven Presidents Park and the Ocean Place Resort & Spa.
For more info http://www.longbranchchamber.org/oceanfe…

Asbury Park certainly knows how to hold a 4th of July fireworks display as well!
Asbury Park

And, if you are still unsure of where to spend your 4th this year, click here for more events taking place this weekend on the Jersey Shore http://www.monmouthcountylife.com/a-monm….

While an ordinance on city books still considers wearing your bathing suit only on the city’s boardwalk and sidewalks lewd behavior, the governing body is weighing the pros and cons of creating a topless beach.

“I don’t know if there is a need for it, but there was a request from a resident, and we said we will look into it,” Council President John Loffredo said.

The proposed topless section would be a nearly block-long area at the city’s Eighth Avenue beach, Loffredo said.

The request came from resident and Yoga Basin owner Reggie Flimlin, who said women going topless is already happening in an informal manner at the city’s north end beach.

“I think the most important aspect of this is that we do attract, because we are a city by the sea, a certain cultural diversity not really seen or celebrated in other places along the Jersey Shore,” Flimlin said. “I just thought it would be appropriate for Asbury Park, given how open and accepting we are, to celebrate women’s rights in a particular area on the beach.”

But Councilwoman Sue Henderson said she’s more concerned about the legality of creating a topless beach.

“I have no problem with people expressing themselves,” Henderson said. “I’m keeping an open mind.”

Unlike Black’s Beach in San Diego or Sandy Hook’s Gunnison Beach, two well-known nude beaches, the proposed Eighth Avenue location is not secluded and away from foot traffic.

“The problem is that we have a boardwalk that runs past there,” Henderson said.

But Flimlin said this is not an issue of lewdness or nudity but of equal rights.

“Why don’t we make it so it doesn’t feel so clandestine and give us (women) a place where we can be comfortable?” Flimlin said. “I do think Asbury is ready to recognize a woman’s right to be comfortable, to sunbathe without tan lines. We celebrate so many different ideologies and choices here, and currently men are topless and women should have the same right.”

Loffredo has asked for a full report to be delivered at the City Council’s July 7 meeting that will include how other communities address such guidelines.

“I guess it’s a matter of maturity, honestly, as to whether or not you can accept it,” Loffredo said.
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