Jersey Shore summer: 10 predictions for 2025

MARGATE — Another summer season is upon us, and, as in recent years, there is uncertainty down the Shore. The heady economic surge ushered in by the pandemic has flattened — by most accounts.

Similar to Hurricane Sandy, the post-pandemic Shore looks, and feels, different. Different people are living in its houses, or in new houses built on lots where old houses were demolished. Local culture continues to yield to Shoobie culture.

Things have moved upscale, and continue to do so, with even the city of Wildwood fetching a million dollars and up for its prime real estate. Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano worries that the town will lose too many hotel rooms and put its long-standing role as the fun and games center of Cape May County at risk.

Nobody wants another Avalon or Stone Harbor, Troiano said, enclaves of the rich where people complain there aren’t enough places to eat (a complaint I repeatedly heard about Long Beach Island last summer).

In Avalon, the Union League took over the Whitebrier, a popular bar and restaurant, and made it off-limits to nonmembers.

They’re having a soft opening Memorial Day Weekend, complete with a “Please Shower” happy hour (ouch), an insult to generations of sandy No Shower Happy Hours, and requiring a “relaxed yet refined” dress code.

» READ MORE: We made ten predictions for the summer of 2024. Were we right?

“So many of the businesses have been replaced by condos,” says Bill Morgan, of Chester County, who rents in Avalon for a week, reduced from his original seasonal rental in 1972. “Now you have to go to Sea Isle to eat and drink.”

With that, here are my 2025 summer predictions.

People are nervous about their bank accounts, interest rates remain high, and those sale and rental prices are more and more seeming, let’s say, aspirational.

Deals and promotions will be available. Look for new Atlantic City neighborhoods (Chelsea and Chelsea Heights, the Inlet) to catch the attention of second-home seekers.

Maria Sacco Handler, a Realtor in Brigantine, says it’s been a delayed rental season — she believes, in part, because the Eagles distracted people from thinking about renting for the summer.

Ben Rose of the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Authority said people are booking closer to their vacation time; last year it was just 16 days.

Says Handler: “They ARE trickling in — but there are lots of last-minute bookings.” She says buyers were also waiting to see any indication that interest rates would be reduced. Seeing none, she said, “many are moving forward with renting and will hold off buying.”

She’s advising owners to offer promotions rather than drop prices in any drastic way. (Sample promotions include, she said: “Book this weekend and receive 10% off or book today and your linens and towels will be included. Or book today and we will waive the cleaning fee.”)

Cole Checkoff of Host House Rentals says, “Prices are comparable to last year, but being reduced by the minute.”

Joann DelVescio of the New Jersey Campground Association said at a Stockton University event that 80% of bookings by Canadians had been canceled.

But she still projected an increase in overall business, as others fill their places. The Canadians mostly come the last two weeks in July and first week in August, weeks with lots of interest.

Economists and others believe some tentativeness about flying, especially out of the country, will cause people to rethink their European vacations and return to the Shore, just a drive away. The Wall Street Journal thinks so.

Eustice Mita, having opened an arcade and pizza place on the site of the defunct Wonderland Pier, will garner some much-needed goodwill and people will get on board with his 252-room hotel proposal. He’s expected to go before Ocean City City Council in the height of summer, which many developers avoid, but in Mita’s case, he might find support with summer people who would book rooms. He’s going to sweeten the appeal by keeping some rides from Wonderland, and may even tap into the resort’s nostalgia by including an outdoor pool reminiscent of the ones once at the Flanders Hotel.

Can mocktails on the Veranda be far behind?

It’s tough to make it in the restaurant world at the Shore, and developers are itchy for the land. More old-time restaurants, in the family for decades, will close and some will be sold to developers. It will be a summer of fighting for their slim profit margins, with tariffs on imported items complicating things. On the upside, the iconic Smitty’s Clam Bar in Somers Point, which has said multiple times it would be closing, is once again open.

The demolitions are already nonstop. Doesn’t anyone like an older home? The number of contractors working in Shore towns building new homes is eye-popping. But what is lost? What is lost when the Union League takes over a popular bar and restaurant and declares it off-limits to anyone but members and guests? Locals in these towns already feel like they are increasingly on the outs, looking in. Most who grew up at the Shore can’t afford to buy in their own hometowns.

A.C. will have a great summer. An air show is coming back, the Steel Pier is hitting its stride, there’s invigorated marketing, there are very friendly cannabis shops, and the eclectic restaurant and beach bar scene gets better and better. There will be some great concerts! Plus, its beaches are free and Airbnbers have some intriguing options. In other news, its mayor and schools superintendent (husband and wife) are scheduled to go on trial in prime-time July on charges of child endangerment.

Police departments have been plotting all year to be ready for the deluge of teens. Cooler and rainy weather over Memorial Day weekend will calm the chaos. In other weather news, with the recent tornado and gustnado in South Jersey, it seems prudent to expect some atmospheric volatility this summer.

Outward signs of divisive politics will finally decrease on the beach. Last year, I predicted people would be nicer. I’m still hoping! Aren’t people tired of this?

Isn’t it time for Taylor and Travis to visit the Kelce Shore house in Sea Isle, take in a little cover band action with Secret Service at the Ocean Drive (celebrating their 40th year at the OD)? It will be like … snow on the beach! People will lose their minds. (But at least she can maybe find someplace to eat.)

... and nobody will be ready. Because whoever is? But also because Labor Day is the earliest it could be: Sept. 1. Make the most of it people.