Waterfront vs. Non-Waterfront in Atlantic City: Casino Corridor, Bay, and Interior

An Island City Built Around Its Boardwalk

Lenape people used the Absecon Island region as a summer settlement before European colonization, and Jeremiah Leeds built a year-round residence there around 1783. The area developed as a resort town starting in 1850, was named Atlantic City in early 1853, and was incorporated May 1, 1854, from portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township. The Camden and Atlantic Railroad began service in 1854, and by 1874 roughly 500,000 passengers annually were traveling to Atlantic City by rail; the first road to the mainland was completed in 1870, initially charging a 30-cent toll.

The 2020 census recorded a population of 38,497, down 2.7 percent from 39,558 in 2010, itself down from 40,517 in 2000. The city's median age is 37.9, and its 2020 demographic composition was approximately 26.5 percent white, 38.3 percent Black or African American, 15.6 percent Asian, and 30.5 percent Hispanic or Latino. Atlantic City operates under a Faulkner Act Mayor-Council form of government (Plan D) adopted July 1, 1982, with a mayor and a nine-member City Council (six ward seats and three at-large seats) serving four-year terms. As of 2026, Mayor Marty Small Sr., a Democrat whose term runs through December 31, 2029, succeeded Frank M. Gilliam Jr. after his October 3, 2019 resignation; in a court-ordered November 2024 special election, Republican Maria Lacca won the 5th Ward seat, the first Republican win there since 1988, after Democrat Muhammed "Anjum" Zia was removed from office for not residing in the city -- a 2026-sourced roster that may have since changed.

The Oceanfront and Boardwalk Corridor: A Genuinely Different Kind of Waterfront

Here is where Atlantic City's waterfront genuinely differs from every other Jersey Shore market covered on this site so far: much of its oceanfront and boardwalk-adjacent real estate is not typical residential waterfront at all, but casino and commercial property. New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City via a 1976 referendum (56 percent to 44 percent), and Resorts Atlantic City opened May 26, 1978, as the first legal casino in the eastern United States. The city has since gone through a real, documented boom-bust cycle: four casinos closed in 2014 alone (Atlantic Club on January 13, Showboat on August 31, Revel on September 2, and Trump Plaza on September 16), and the Trump Taj Mahal closed October 10, 2016. The former Revel property was purchased for $200 million in 2017 by AC Ocean Walk, LLC and reopened in 2018 as Ocean Casino Resort, after Revel had filed for bankruptcy in February 2013 when its valuation fell from $2.4 billion to $450 million.

Atlantic City has since stabilized to nine operating casinos, which generated $2.79 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2022 alone, a 9 percent increase from 2021's $2.55 billion, though the city continues to face real competitive pressure from casinos in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. Separately, the Miss America pageant originated in Atlantic City on September 7, 1921, explicitly created to extend the tourist season past Labor Day weekend, with Margaret Gorman winning the first competition; the pageant was hosted in Atlantic City from its inception through 2004 and again from 2013 through 2018. This page does not state a specific FEMA flood-zone designation, a specific street-by-street boundary between casino-corridor and residential oceanfront property, or a dollar premium for oceanfront versus other property in Atlantic City -- those are address-specific questions for a local agent and FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and this page does not guess at them. What can be said generally is that a buyer looking at oceanfront or near-boardwalk property here should confirm, block by block, whether a given address sits within the casino and tourism corridor or within one of the city's more conventionally residential sections, since the two carry genuinely different dynamics.

Bayfront and Interior Neighborhoods: A City With Its Own Serious Story

Atlantic City's water is not limited to the ocean side; at 17.21 square miles total, with 6.45 of those square miles being water, the city's bay side and back-bay waterways run along Absecon Island's inland edge, generally distinct from the ocean-facing casino corridor. This page does not name specific bayfront or interior neighborhood boundaries beyond that general geography, since no such neighborhood-level detail was confirmed in the research behind this page.

What is confirmed, and worth stating honestly, is that Atlantic City faces a real, current, and unresolved grocery-access problem for its year-round residents, regardless of which side of the island they live on. In 2022, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority ranked Atlantic City second on its list of the state's food desert communities, behind only Camden. As of 2024, only one functioning supermarket-type store operated in the city -- a Save-A-Lot in Renaissance Plaza -- with the nearest full-service supermarket located three miles away in neighboring Ventnor City. A previously announced ShopRite project broke ground in October 2021 after Village Super Market obtained $18.7 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funding, but that project ultimately failed to open. In October 2025, the city announced a new $20 million redevelopment deal for Renaissance Plaza, expanding the Save-A-Lot by 50 percent to 28,000 square feet, with completion expected by the end of 2026. This page does not state whether that project remains on track as of today -- it is an announced, in-progress project, not a completed one -- and it is a genuine reminder that Atlantic City is simultaneously a major tourism and casino economy and a city with a documented, serious grocery-access gap for its own residents. Both things are true at once, and neither should be minimized when weighing a purchase in an interior, non-waterfront section of the city.

A Real, Dated Organized-Crime History Along This Same Waterfront

The waterfront hotels that once anchored Atlantic City's boardwalk also hosted a genuinely significant, dated piece of American history. In May 1929, local boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson -- who reportedly earned up to $500,000 annually from kickbacks on illegal liquor, gambling, prostitution, and construction -- hosted the Atlantic City Conference from May 13 to 16 at the Ritz-Carlton and Ambassador Hotels (the Breakers Hotel had refused accommodations to non-WASP guests). More than 60 crime bosses from across the country attended, including organizers Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Johnny Torrio, plus a Chicago delegation featuring Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake Guzik, along with delegations from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Kansas City, Florida, and Louisiana. Historians regard the conference as the earliest organized-crime summit held in the United States and the foundational step toward the National Crime Syndicate.

Hurricane Sandy struck Atlantic City on October 29, 2012, causing flooding and power outages but only minimal damage to the tourist areas, and the storm produced an all-time record low barometric pressure reading of 943 millibars (27.85 inches) for both Atlantic City and the state of New Jersey. This page does not state a specific flood-zone designation for any individual oceanfront, bayfront, or interior parcel in Atlantic City -- that is a question for FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and a local agent, addressed to a specific property.

New Jersey Is Genuinely Different From Delaware Here

Atlantic City is this site's thirteenth New Jersey market, following Cape May, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Strathmere, Longport, Margate City, and Ventnor City. New Jersey has its own state sales tax and its own municipal and county property-tax structure, genuinely different from the no-state-sales-tax framing used across the Delaware markets this site also covers, and that difference applies regardless of whether an Atlantic City property sits in the casino and boardwalk corridor, on the bay side, or in an interior residential block. Atlantic City itself has a distinctive local structure worth flagging further: a reduced local sales tax rate has historically applied within the Atlantic City Tourism District, separate from the statewide rate. Do not assume any Delaware town's tax rules, or a neighboring New Jersey town's rate, carry over here.

This page does not state a current New Jersey sales tax rate, a current Atlantic City Tourism District sales tax rate, a current Atlantic County or Atlantic City property tax rate, or any specific current assessment figure. Atlantic County government, Atlantic City's own finance office, and the State of New Jersey are the right sources for current rates.

What This Page Will Not Invent

We did not find, and will not invent, a confirmed price premium, in dollars or as a percentage, for oceanfront, bayfront, or interior property in Atlantic City. We also did not find a current median home price, a current active-listing count, or a current (2026) permanent population figure beyond the 2020 census count of 38,497, itself down 2.7 percent from 39,558 in 2010. We did not find, and do not state, a specific FEMA flood-zone designation, base flood elevation, or flood-insurance premium for any individual Atlantic City parcel, oceanfront, bayfront, or interior.

We also did not find, and do not invent, specific street-by-street boundaries separating the casino and boardwalk corridor from residential oceanfront blocks, or naming specific bayfront or interior neighborhoods beyond the general geography confirmed above. We do not state whether the October 2025 Renaissance Plaza redevelopment remains on track for its stated end-of-2026 completion target, current unemployment or poverty figures beyond the dated 2014 and 2010 figures referenced in the research behind this page, current gross gaming revenue figures beyond the confirmed 2022 total of $2.79 billion, or specific current casino, restaurant, or shop names beyond the nine operating casinos confirmed in the source material. We do not confirm whether Mayor Marty Small Sr. or the current City Council composition remains accurate as of today.

Before comparing a specific oceanfront, bayfront, or interior-block listing, get current, address-specific comparable sales from a local Atlantic City agent who knows this island city, and get a parcel-level flood-zone determination from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center directly. Confirm current New Jersey, Atlantic City Tourism District, and Atlantic County tax figures with the relevant government offices, and confirm current casino, redevelopment, and shoreline conditions with Atlantic City directly, rather than assuming any neighboring market's figures or this page's dated facts still apply.