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Real Estate
in Spring Lake NJ
Real Estate in Spring Lake New Jersey is a very valuable
commodity. It’s one of the
most exclusive New Jersey Communities and probably the most exclusive
community by the New Jersey
Shore. The proximity to the beach make this
small shore community a beautiful place to live or vacation.
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For Sale in Spring Lake NJ
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will find resources on real estate in Spring Lake
NJ and a tremendous
amount of information. We are interested
in assisting anyone wishing to buy sell or rent property in Spring Lake NJ.
Spring Lake
NJ News
From Courier News
Shore comes to life in boardwalk towns
Jersey's coast offers something for everyone.
By JUSTIN VELLUCCI
Gannett New Jersey
THE JERSEY
SHORE -- You pace the
boardwalk's wooden planks, your steps in time with crashing waves, and the
rest of the world is washed away by the spectacle of it all.
Picking at saltwater taffy or a sticky cloud of cotton candy,
you watch people flocking to beachfront coasters and carnival attractions,
the smell of sea air blending with the aroma of piping-hot pizza,
cheesesteak and funnel cake.
Alexander Boardman and Jacob Keim might have never imagined it
like this.
About 136 years ago, the two proposed installing wooden boards
near the beach simply to keep pedestrians from tracking sand into Atlantic City's plush
hotels and the upscale train carriages that brought city-dwellers to the
sea.
The idea, to say the least, was a hit.
New Jersey's 127-mile coastline
became fortified with boardwalks as railroads and ferries flooded the
coastline with New York and Philadelphia crowds
hungry for amusements and top-notch amenities. As the Jersey
Shore blossomed into America's
playground, more boards surfaced on beaches and bayfronts, injecting the
region with a summertime culture and booming entertainment industry
unparalleled on the nation's coasts.
Boardwalks with personality
Everyone found their favorite haunt. While thrill-seekers were
drawn to the circus-like atmosphere of Wildwood, Ocean
City's charms or Asbury
Park's pleasure-palaces, working-class families hit Point Pleasant Beach
or Keansburg, and those seeking a quiet boardwalk stroll trekked to Ocean
Grove or Spring
Lake.
"Every boardwalk has its own personality," said Emil
Salvini, a 57-year-old Cape May regular
and author of "Boardwalk Memories." "What I love about
boardwalks in New Jersey
is you can still get whatever you want."
What you'll find also continues to be defined by where you
find it.
Boardwalks between the Raritan and Barnegat bays became
annexed as sandbar extensions of New
York City and the state's more urban north -- all
pizza, Italian-style sausages and Mets or Yankees caps. Farther south, on
boardwalks stretching toward the mouth of the Delaware River, Philadelphia's
influence pockmarked the Shore, from cheesesteaks and pork roll to Eagles
jerseys.
"LBI really is like a line in the sand," said Bill
Lewis, 60, the Cherry Hill resident behind
JerseyBoardwalk.com, a tourist-friendly Web site that catalogs the state's
waterfront attractions. "It's like the Mason-Dixon line of the Jersey Shore."
North of the Route 72 bridge leading into Long Beach Island,
the tourists are dubbed "bennys," the derogatory nickname
possibly coined as an acronym for cities whose inhabitants help fill local
beaches: Bayonne, Elizabeth,
Newark and New York. South of the span, they're
"shoobies," the day-trippers riding rails down the Shore from
Philly and packing lunch in shoeboxes instead of footing the bill for local
meals.
Unique to New Jersey
The similarities, however, bind together the boards as much as
differences distinguish them. It's a trait apparent in the sense-tingling
attractions found from town to town, not to mention the way rumbling wooden
coasters, ticket-spewing skeeball machines and boardwalk fudge shops, no
matter their names, have become inextricably linked with the state's
identity.
Historians aren't sure why these amusement-lined promenades
are unique to New Jersey,
but they stress nobody stumbled on the formula for their success by
accident. The Shore boardwalk exists within a universe crafted by savvy
entrepreneurs who bulked up the small hunting resorts and spas peppering
the coast in the 19th century.
"Jersey has this long
beach, and everybody figured, 'Let's cash in on
this,'" said Dick Handschuch, 70, who wrote "The Beach Bum's
Guide to the Boardwalks of New Jersey" with Sal Marino. "You had
people feeding, constantly feeding, these areas. In the early 1900s, almost
everyone had a boardwalk."
And almost everyone took cues from Atlantic City, whose epic boards,
glimmering attractions and infamous underbelly of corruption all played on
the world's stage.
"Atlantic City really gave birth to and institutionalized
the whole concept of the 'spending spree,' this whole idea of spending
money, in and of itself, as a leisure-time activity," said Nelson
Johnson, 57, an Atlantic County judge and author whose family roots in the
area pre-date the Absecon Island city.
"From one end of the boardwalk to the other, the whole
idea was to try to get people to part with their money," Johnson
added. "But, you had to make them feel good about it while you're
doing it."
Image-conscious visitors
Alison Isenberg, a Rutgers
University history
professor, said that also raises questions about how boardwalks developed
alongside the trappings of class, race and social status.
These issues resonated loudly in the early 1900s, when
visitors flaunted tailored suits and ornate dresses on the boards or paid
working-class, often black locals to push them along on rolling chairs, she
said.
"These places definitely became destinations of
performance where ... people were coming and were very self-aware about the
image that they portrayed," Isenberg said. "In some ways, it's
less about the people who live in the immediate area and more about what
this stage, essentially, allowed out-of-town visitors to perform and
display."
The boardwalks have evolved, some transformed by savage
hurricanes and blazes, others by redevelopment and the changing tastes of
tourists.
"There's certainly a storyline that talks about the rise
of the automobile, the rise of air travel and the ability to get and
survive in air-conditioning," Isenberg said. "Together, those
things had an impact."
Many boardwalks still boom from Ocean
City to Seaside Heights
while some waterfront communities have grown into year-round residential
enclaves. Towns such as Asbury Park and Long Branch have
plotted beachfront renaissances, though their once-thriving boardwalks tend
to be captured more as nostalgia than in the future tense.
Always, the ocean
The region, however, hardly has lost its magnetic ability to
pull crowds toward the ocean.
"In the summer, it becomes so crowded here that you
basically don't go out anywhere," Toni McChesney, 63, of Manasquan
said jokingly. "If you're going to go to a restaurant, you're going to
go west. You're going to go inland."
But, you'd be in the minority. And rightfully so, said Lewis,
who grew up summering in Wildwood and Ocean City.
"Anthropologists will tell you, for example, that all of
mankind is drawn to the water, particularly to the oceans," Lewis
said. "You take that natural attraction, and then you add to it
boardwalks and amusement rides and cheesesteaks."
"It's Jersey," he
added. "It's the way it is. It's really just unique to Jersey; you're absolutely correct, and I cannot tell
you why. But, it's pretty cool."
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Tip #19
Home Buying Tip, Online Searching:
Searching online is a very effective way to look for real estate in New Jersey, or
anywhere for that matter. Good
websites allow you to search through multiple MLS’s so you can
cover a wide range. For example
here you can Search for
NJ Real Estate.
After you find the house you are
interested in you can inquiry with the real estate agency to find out
more information or to arrange an appointment to view the house.
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Tip #18
Home Selling Tip, Targeting Out Of State:
When you sell your home you sometimes have to put yourself in the
potential buyers’ shoes. In New Jersey many home buyers are from the
surrounding area, like New York or Pennsylvania.
Knowing this can allow your agent to
market your house more effectively.
If he/she will advertise in a New York publication they can describe
the proximity to NY. This allows
your potential Buyer Base to expand.
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