Sea Level Rise and Sunny-Day Flooding Can’t Stop a Building Boom on the Jersey Shore
Key takeaways
- Half an hour south, excavation is making way for luxury homes in Seaside Park at the edge of Island Beach State Park, a mecca for fishers who come in droves to cast lines on the pristine beach.
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Republish Coastal flooding hits the Jersey Shore in Avalon on Oct. 12, 2025. Credit: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images Related Can a Flood-Prone Coastal City Learn to Live With Water? Sea-Level Rise Accelerates in New Jersey, Raising Coastal Flooding Risk, Study Says In the Outer Banks, A Growing Number of Homes Are Getting Swallowed by the Sea Share This Article Republish Most Popular As El Niño Approaches, Scientists Predict Fierce Heatwaves, Wildfires and Floods What To Expect as El Niño Approaches Virginia Governor Signs Dominion-Backed Bills. All Eyes on Regulators Now. ASBURY PARK, N.J.—Million-dollar condos are rising just off the legendary boardwalk here in what used to be a blue-collar shore town where Bruce Springsteen played as a young musician.
Half an hour south, excavation is making way for luxury homes in Seaside Park at the edge of Island Beach State Park, a mecca for fishers who come in droves to cast lines on the pristine beach. Farther south, in Somers Point, contractors are building townhouses near marshes that were engulfed during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Warnings about sea level rise haven’t stopped the building boom at the Jersey Shore even as scientific studies predict increased flooding in the coming decades that will eventually affect not just the shoreline but inland communities as well.