{"id":17755,"date":"2025-07-25T04:13:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=17755"},"modified":"2025-07-25T04:13:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:13:42","slug":"seaside-heights-tax-base-has-more-than-doubled-since-pre-sandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2025\/07\/seaside-heights-tax-base-has-more-than-doubled-since-pre-sandy\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaside Heights’ Tax Base Has More Than Doubled Since Pre-Sandy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Seaside Heights boardwalk, Oct. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seaside Heights is becoming a gem for property owners and investors, more than doubling its value since Superstorm Sandy struck more than a decade ago, and seeing double digit year-to-year jumps in the value of property sales.<\/p>\n

Ocean County tax data released recently showed the staggering value of the borough, which began an intensive rebranding after the storm to shed its image as the hard-partying bar town portrayed in MTV’s “Jersey Shore” in the late 2000s in favor of a more subdued, traditional resort community. While there have been bumps along the road \u2013 consisting of boardwalk antics and litigation over a number of derelict motels that continue to operate \u2013 the borough has attracted major investors, including the first K. Hovnanian community on the barrier island, and a grand hotel and banquet facility being built by high-profile Boston developer William Caulder.<\/p>\n

Assessments were recalculated for 2025 after last being set in 2013, just after the storm ravaged the borough’s tax base. The results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

“The net valuation taxable was up 145 percent, and that average assessment \u2026 in 2024 was $257,089 and the average assessment now is $594,149, an increase of 131 percent,” said Robert S. Oliwa, the borough’s auditor.<\/p>\n

Data released by Ocean County shows the staggering accumulation of real property wealth in the borough. In 2012, the year that Sandy struck, Seaside Heights’ ratable base stood at $842,960,200. In 2013, after the storm, the tax base had been decimated to $617,804,400, a loss of more than $200 million in value. This year, however, the Ocean County Board of Taxation reported Seaside Heights’ ratable base at $1,705,658,300. Another $188 million worth of property was exempt, being owned by the municipal, state or county government, or a house of worship.<\/p>\n

The reassessment also showed growth in the borough’s business community, Oliwa said. As a portion of the tax base, $440,581,400 worth of real property was owned by businesses. Commercial property now makes up 26 percent of the tax base, he said, further breaking down the numbers.<\/p>\n

“The vacant properties had a 1 percent increase on the new valuations, the residentials went from 68 percent to 65 percent, and there was a bump in the commercials,” said Oliwa. “They\u2019re now at 26 percent from 24 percent. Apartments make up 4 percent.”<\/p>\n

Home sales have also seen a significant jump in a short period of time. Last year, in 2024, the average residential sale was $567,278, said Oliwa. The previous year, in 2023, the average was $431,407.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s an increase of 31 percent from year-to-year, which is really something,” said Oliwa.<\/p>\n

So far in 2025, state data shows the median home price sitting at $538,400, a 9 percent year-on-year increase. Homes are selling comparatively quickly, with a median of 47 days on the market.<\/p>\n

Seaside Heights has numerous, major construction projects underway \u2013 many of which are replacing the very nightclubs and motels shown on the MTV series \u2013 including the Coastal Edge development<\/a>, which is being built on the site of the most prominently-featured venue from that era, the Karma nightclub. Its sister club, Bamboo, was also torn down and is being redeveloped after some initial delays<\/a>, while the oceanfront is seeing construction in the form of the 500 Ocean complex<\/a> and the future 135-room hotel, restaurant and event center<\/a>. Construction on the Hovnanian community<\/a> \u2013 a first for the barrier island in any town \u2013 is due to get underway within weeks.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seaside Heights is becoming a gem for property owners and investors, more than doubling its value since Superstorm Sandy struck more than a decade ago, and seeing double digit year-to-year jumps in the value of property sales. Ocean County tax data released recently showed the staggering value of the borough, which began an intensive rebranding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5,11],"tags":[1959,400,20,53,2931],"class_list":["post-17755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seaside-government","category-seaside-heights","category-superstorm-sandy","tag-featured","tag-ratables","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news","tag-superstorm-sandy","tag-tax-base"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ssh_bwalk_replace_1548-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4Cn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17757,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755\/revisions\/17757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}