Sea isle City Billboard at Lincoln Tunnel

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SEA ISLECITY — A giant billboard that greets motorists as they cross into New Jersey via the Lincoln Tunnel lets would-be visitors know that Sea Isle City is open for business.

“People saw that roller coaster in the water and thought it was the entire Jersey Shore,” Sea Isle City Mayor Len Desiderio said of the image of the Jet Star roller coaster in the ocean off Seaside Heights following Hurricane Sandy.

Desiderio and members of the island’s business community decided they had to do something to overcome that perception, so they headed north.

The billboard, which costs $15,000 monthly, is being paid for by the Sea Isle City Chamber of Commerce and Revitalization, and is part of a partnership between the business community, tourism commission and the city.

Desiderio hasn’t driven north to see it, but he had a friend in Nutley drive by and take a picture.

“He called it ‘grand,’” Desiderio said.

The billboard featuring this season’s slogan, “We’re ready,” aims to draw visitors from New York and northern New Jersey, the first time the city has turned its advertising dollars to New York.

“We get calls from people asking are we going to be ready for summer. Although we suffered some damage to the Police Department and City Hall, we want people to know that the city is ready,” Desiderio said.

Normally, the city’s advertising focuses on the Philadelphia market, but following Hurricane Sandy towns such as Sea Isle City are looking to draw visitors who might otherwise have gone to places like Seaside Heights, which suffered significant damage.

The ad campaign was targeted to start at the end of January, when visitors are looking to book their summer vacations.

“We know that they may or may not be able to go to Monmouth or Ocean counties, but we wanted to give them the option of staying in Jersey,” Desiderio said. “We want to keep the tourist dollars in the state of New Jersey.”

Christopher Glancey, president of the city’s chamber of commerce, said an estimated 400,000 people travel through the tunnel each day, giving the city a wider audience.

The billboard features the city’s website, seaislecitynj.us, and the chamber will track visits to determine how successful the billboard is. If the numbers show growth, then the billboard will remain for another month.

Glancey said the chamber will host fundraisers to support the billboard’s placement. No city dollars are being used, Desiderio said.

Sea Isle City has a year-round population of about 2,300 people, but swells to about 50,000 on any given summer weekend, and Desiderio hopes those numbers grow with the help of the new ad campaign.

The campaign will also include radio ads and some cable television ads starting this month.

“Every $1 we spend (in advertising) brings back $68 in spending,” he said, noting a Cape May County tourism report.

Brought to you by The Landis Co., Realtors, www.LandisCo.com , info@LandisCo.com , (609) 263-3400

Sea Isle City Townhouse Sold Transactions 2012

Sea Isle City Market Report
Statistics for: Sea Isle City Townhouses Date Range 01/01/2012-12/31/2012
Class	Bedrooms	Total Listed	Num Sold	Pct Sold	Avg List Price	Avg Sale Price	Sale/List Price	Avg DOM Sold	Avg List Price Unsold	Pct Expired
All	All	251	168	66.93%	$731,896	$697,503	95.30%	223	$768,032	43.03%
CT	3 Bedroom	12	8	66.67%	$515,612	$489,375	94.91%	285	$461,870	75.00%
CT	4 Bedroom	140	100	71.43%	$716,649	$682,499	95.23%	226	$758,757	42.14%
CT	5 Bedroom	83	51	61.45%	$775,210	$738,650	95.28%	210	$842,488	42.17%
CT	6 Bedroom	15	9	60.00%	$848,111	$816,055	96.22%	210	$903,833	20.00%

 

Happy New Year from Sea Isle City, NJ

Happy New Year From The Landis Co., Realtors

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Changes to the Mortgage Interst Deduction Will be a Problem

Changes to the MID Would Have Devastating Impact on New Jersey:
Answer NAR’s Call For Action at Realtoractioncenter.com 

By now, you have seen numerous news reports concerning negotiations currently taking place between President Obama and Congress on how to avoid going over the “Fiscal Cliff.” Several news stories speculate there may be attempts to limit and/or reduce homeowners’ ability to deduct mortgage interest payments from their income taxes as part of the deal struck to address our government’s economic woes.

It is the belief of the REALTOR^® organization that any reduction and/or limit placed on the mortgage interest reduction (MID) would undermine consumer confidence in the housing market at a time when the goal is to stabilize housing prices and sustain homeownership.

Given the current state of the economy, any proposal to slash the MID could have an extremely negative impact on New Jersey’s real estate market and taxpayers. In fact, in 2011 there were approximately 2,060,480 owner‐occupied houses in New Jersey and 70% of those had a mortgage.  In 2010, 1,377,300 taxpayers in New Jersey claimed a deduction for mortgage interest, with the total amount deducted at $15,716,737,000. This means that the average taxpayer claiming the MID deducted $11,400 from taxable income in 2010.

The real estate industry’s impact on our nation and state’s fiscal health is irrefutable and that is why it is crucial to protect this deduction.  Tax deductions that residents receive from owning a home are powerful incentives to get people into the housing market.  Given the dire financial issues our country is facing, we must fight to bolster the housing industry and stop any proposal which seeks to undermine the basic foundation of homeownership.

Please do your part to protect the MID and Garden State taxpayers. Answer the National Association of the REALTORS^® (NAR) Call For Action and send a message to our Senators and your member of Congress. Remind them where REALTORS^®stand and that we will be watching to see who stands with us.

For more information about the mortgage interest deduction contact The Landis Co., Realtors at (609) 263-3400 or info@LandisCo.com . 

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Home Prices Continue to Rise

Posted By susanne On August 1, 2012

^[1]Data through May 2012, released by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that average home prices increased by 2.2 percent in May over April for both the 10- and 20-City Composites.
With May’s data, we found that home prices fell annually by 1.0 percent for the 10-City Composite and by 0.7 percent for the 20-City Composite versus May 2011. Both Composites and 17 of the 20 MSAs saw increases in annual returns in May compared to April. Boston, Charlotte and Detroit were the three cities that saw their annual returns worsen in May, with annual rates of -0.1 percent, +0.9 percent and +0.6 percent, respectively. Atlanta continues to be the only city posting a double-digit negative annual return with -14.5 percent. However, this is an improvement over the -17.0 percent annual decline recorded in April 2012.