ASBURY PARK- Buy or Not?????

[Renster]

I am considering buying a condo off of Cookman ave. I have been looking to buy a weekend get-a-way for 2 years. Due to affordability, my first concentration was in Long Branch. It's very nice, but for what I can afford I will not get a lot for my money. And though Long Branch is nice, and Pier Village is beautiful, I still did not that fuzzy, warm feeling.

On a fluke, I drove through Asbury Park and noticed all of the construction. I contacted a local AP realitor I had a long conversation, eventually making an appointment for a tour and to see some condos for the following weekend.

I loved what I saw. It felt right. Cookman Ave is thriving with unique shops, coffee houses and fine restaurants. I also saw a unit that I love and is affordable. I saw a beautiful old house renovated into a very trendy hotel. The Boardwalk looked great, clean, and the new coffee shop under construction, on the south end of the Boardwalk, was being built with marble and granit. How can the area not be on an up swing. People are investing a lot of money into the place.

On Cookman, I saw BMW, Mercedes, Mini Coopers, and other really nice cars.

AP reminds me of Hoboken but with a beach. For me and my family (more me) it's a good fit. I get that warm fuzzy feeling.

None the less, I am afraid. Everyone is saying I'm crazy and it's a crap shoot. I am afraid to trust my instincts...and my instincts are telling me that AP is really turning around this time. I think my investment will grow.....but I'm still afraid. I should mention that I almost bought in the Santander 20 years ago.

I have been doing my research and the crime is so high. Will I be afraid to walk home - one block to my condo - after having dinner. Will I be afraid to have my 14 year old son walk the 5 blocks to the beach. Will I be afraid to sit on my porch. Will I be robbed when I'm not there or worse, when I am there?

Please, anyone who is living there, who took a chance and bought....are you sorry? I would really love to hear what you have to say.

Are they any other families in the area.

Since I missed the beach season, what kind of people are on the beach. Will I be putting my blanket down next to a dirty needle.

Anyway, I hope to hear from anyone who will post.

[solibs]

My grandparents lived in Asbury, on Deal Lake, until I was about 10. This was in the early 80s when Asbury was, by far, at its worst. When the state hospitals closed down all of the old hotels in Asbury, Ocean Grove and even Bradley Beach were flooded with the mentally ill.

My family had a lot of connections to Asbury that kept us coming back for years. As an adult (in the late 90s) I lived in Bradley Beach and Allenhurst and spent plenty of time in Asbury Park, day and night. I watched the decline continue. I used to say, "yeah, i remember when there was a Howard Johnson's right here."

Northeast Asbury - the part of town between Deal and Sunset Lakes east of Main St. was never a bad neighborhood. It's always been a neighborhood of well kept victorians with well kept yards. People see the way Ocean Ave. and downtown used to look and thought that the whole town looked like that. In reality, all of the neighborhoods north of Asbury Ave. were decent places. it was never Interlaken or Deal but they were never the warzones that some people make them out to be.

The gay renaissance started when I was a kid. It kicked into high gear (Manhattan money) around 2000. The downtown redevelopment started in 2002/2003.

I go up there a few times a summer. I'll probably be up there next weekend. Like I've said, I've been hanging out on the Asbury boardwalk for as long as I can remember and never, ever have I seen what I've seen this summer.

The boardwalk is crowded. There is a respectable pub in Convention Hall with food I'd be interested in eating. There are police who are present but in the background - not aggressive and in your face. There is a cocktail lounge with big crowds. There are several restaurants that also draw big crowds.
You want to know what the crowd on the boardwalk is like? There's a boutique muffin shop and a furniture store full of men. If that doesn't scream "weekend escape from Chelsea" nothing will.

The restaurants - and the crowds - downtown are, from my perspective, nothing short of stunning.
I grew up with a mothballed downtown. My band used to practice at the Hot Dog House. It was the only place downtown opened past 5pm. To see restaurants, shops and bars that I'm interested in patronizing just blows my mind.

The time to buy there was 8 years ago. It's a done deal now. In 2000 I saw the seeds of change there that looked much different than the fits and starts that went on before. And, condo project after condo project, loft conversion after loft conversion, victorian rehab after victorian rehab, restaurant after restaurant some people have been telling me "nah, it's gonna be a long time." Stubborn people aren't going to stop being stubborn long enough to admit that they're wrong.

Check the home prices east of Main St nowadays.

[philasurfer]

It is possible that the credit crisis/economy could work to APs advantage. People won't have the money to vacation or go to the beach elsewhere. Perhaps that is part of the reason for APs demise in the 70s and 80s. People had too many vacation options because we were all so "rich" all of a sudden. This winter local ski resorts did surprisingly well given the economy, because trips out west were too expensive. Could work that way for AP?

Just looking for the hopeful side of this debate.

[theoakman]

Originally Posted by philasurfer

It is possible that the credit crisis/economy could work to APs advantage. People won't have the money to vacation or go to the beach elsewhere. Perhaps that is part of the reason for APs demise in the 70s and 80s. People had too many vacation options because we were all so "rich" all of a sudden. This winter local ski resorts did surprisingly well given the economy, because trips out west were too expensive. Could work that way for AP?

Just looking for the hopeful side of this debate.

there will not be one single town in the United State's who's conditions improve in the next couple of years. The country is in a recession and is teetering on the brinks of a depression. You need a good economy to revitalize a town. Asbury has way too many underlying problems. Drugs, crime, falling real estate. Their big condominium project got killed. Most of the stores they brought in were retail and restaurants, 2 industries which are also getting killed right now. Revitalization of Asbury has a zero percent chance in the next 5 years. Hoboken made it's comeback during one of the biggest bull markets this country ever saw.