Coastal Insurance Explained: Longport, NJ
Longport is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City. Its total area is just 1.56 square miles, and of that, only 0.40 square miles is land; the remaining 1.16 square miles is water, meaning Longport is roughly 74.49 percent water by area, among the highest water-to-land ratios of any Jersey Shore town. That is not an abstract statistic. Between 1900 and 1916, storms eroded 180 acres of the barrier island's southern end, comprising ten platted, numbered streets, permanently reshaping Longport's geography into the water-dominant footprint that still defines the borough today. A town whose land was measurably narrowed by storm erosion within living memory of its own founding, and that remains three-quarters water today, is about as direct a real-world case as exists for why flood and windstorm insurance are a central, ongoing cost of ownership here rather than an afterthought. This page walks through NFIP flood insurance, homeowners and windstorm coverage, and general NFIP mechanics, without inventing a flood zone designation, a premium figure, or an insurer name for any specific Longport property. Nothing here is insurance, legal, or tax advice; confirm current flood zones with FEMA and current coverage and cost with a licensed New Jersey insurance agent before relying on it for a specific address.
A Borough Reshaped by Erosion Into 74.49 Percent Water
Longport sits on the southwest tip of Absecon Island, the same barrier island that carries Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City to its north. The borough's own footprint is unusual even among barrier-island towns: of its 1.56 total square miles, only 0.40 square miles is land, while 1.16 square miles is water, putting Longport at roughly 74.49 percent water by area. That ratio did not appear at random. Between 1900 and 1916, storms eroded 180 acres of the island's southern end, an area that had been platted into ten numbered streets, permanently removing that land from the map. What is now open water and marsh at the southern end of the borough was, within the twentieth century, mapped, numbered street grid.
That history matters for insurance because it is a documented, factual illustration of exactly the kind of risk flood and wind coverage exist to address: a barrier-island community where the boundary between land and water has moved, and moved significantly, inside recorded history. Longport's current geography is not a hypothetical worst case; it is what happened here already, once, over roughly a fifteen-year span, and it is the reason a real conversation about flood zones, elevation, and windstorm coverage belongs at the center of any purchase or ownership decision in this borough rather than at the margins.
Flood Insurance: NFIP Basics for a Borough That Is Mostly Water
Standard homeowners insurance nationwide, including in Longport, excludes flood damage. Flood coverage instead runs through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as a separate policy, or through a private flood carrier where one is available and offers comparable or broader terms. If a property sits in a mapped Special Flood Hazard Area and carries a federally backed mortgage, NFIP coverage, or an equivalent private flood policy, is effectively required rather than optional. FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0 methodology, which sets current NFIP premiums, weighs a structure's distance to water, its elevation relative to Base Flood Elevation, its foundation and construction type, its square footage and replacement cost, and its flood history individually, so two Longport properties only a few blocks apart, one closer to the ocean and one closer to the back bays that now cover most of the borough's area, can land on meaningfully different flood profiles.
This page does not state a specific NFIP premium figure, a specific flood zone designation, or a specific deductible for any Longport parcel; none of those were confirmed in the research behind this page, and all of them vary by exact address. FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) is the correct source for a parcel-specific flood zone determination and should be checked directly for the exact address under consideration, rather than inferred from the borough's overall water-dominant footprint or its erosion history.
Homeowners and Windstorm Coverage
A barrier-island borough with direct Atlantic exposure on one side and extensive back-bay water on the other is a reasonable place to expect that windstorm and named-storm coverage receives specific attention from an insurer, separate from any flood policy. Coastal homeowners policies in New Jersey shore towns often carry a separate windstorm or named-storm deductible, sometimes calculated as a percentage of the dwelling's insured value rather than a flat dollar amount, and the exact structure varies by insurer and by policy. This page does not state a figure for Longport specifically, because none was confirmed in the research behind this page.
Roof age and material, window and door protection, foundation type and elevation above Base Flood Elevation, and construction quality relative to current New Jersey coastal building codes are all factors a New Jersey-licensed agent will typically ask about when quoting a property here, along with whether the home faces the open Atlantic or the bay side of the borough. Longport's own 2025 dune-education signage initiative, installed after officials observed beachgoers standing on protective dunes, is a real, current, small-scale reminder that the dune system along the ocean side is treated by the borough itself as active flood and erosion protection, not scenery, which is part of the same broader coastal-risk picture that shapes windstorm and flood underwriting here.
Why Insurance Is a Central Cost Here, Not a Footnote
Longport's own numbers make the case without needing embellishment. A borough that is 74.49 percent water today, after having documented, storm-driven erosion of 180 acres and ten numbered streets between 1900 and 1916, is a place where the land-water boundary has already proven itself capable of significant movement. That is a materially different starting point for a flood-and-wind insurance conversation than an inland property with no comparable erosion history, and it is a legitimate reason to expect flood and windstorm coverage to represent a larger, more central share of the ongoing cost of owning property in Longport than it would elsewhere.
That does not translate into a specific premium figure, flood zone, or insurer name on this page, current or otherwise. Coverage amounts, replacement-cost estimates, and rate impact all depend on the specific structure, its exact location within the borough, its elevation, its construction, and the individual insurer's own underwriting guidelines, none of which this page has confirmed for any particular Longport property. What is fair and useful to say is that anyone buying or owning property in a borough shaped this directly by documented erosion should expect flood and wind coverage to be a genuine, ongoing line item worth planning for, and should have that conversation with an agent early rather than treating it as a closing-day formality.
The Honest Gap: No Zone, Premium, or Rate Invented Here
This page deliberately does not state a specific FEMA flood zone for any Longport parcel, a specific NFIP or homeowners premium dollar figure, a specific windstorm or named-storm deductible percentage, a specific underwriting rule tied to any insurer, or a current insurer name. None of those were confirmed via a primary current source in the research behind this page, and every one of them varies by exact parcel, ocean-versus-bay exposure, building age, size, construction, elevation, occupancy type, insurer, and current market conditions in ways a general destination guide cannot responsibly guess at. The borough's 2017 median home sale price of $767,500 and its 2018 average property tax bill of $10,872, the highest in Atlantic County that year, are themselves dated historical figures cited in this page's background research, not current valuations or tax rates, and should not be treated as today's numbers.
The same caution applies to New Jersey's own tax structure. New Jersey has its own state sales tax and its own property-tax and insurance-regulation framework, genuinely different from a no-sales-tax state's framing; current Longport and Atlantic County property tax rates, current New Jersey state sales tax figures, and current insurer availability should be confirmed directly with Atlantic County, the Borough of Longport's own finance office, and the State of New Jersey, not estimated here.
Practical Steps Before You Close
Get a parcel-specific FEMA flood zone determination directly from the Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) for the exact address under consideration, rather than assuming the borough's overall water-dominant footprint or its 1900-1916 erosion history tells you the zone for a specific lot. This matters on Absecon Island's southwest tip, where an ocean-facing lot and a lot closer to the back bays can carry genuinely different flood profiles despite Longport's small size. Ask whether an elevation certificate already exists for the building, since that document directly affects flood premium calculations under Risk Rating 2.0.
Get a written quote from a New Jersey-licensed insurance agent who actively places coverage in coastal Atlantic County before making an offer, and ask specifically how that agent's or insurer's underwriting treats the property's exposure, given Longport's documented erosion history and its current 74.49 percent water footprint. Be specific about the building's age, construction, elevation, and intended use, owner-occupied, seasonal rental, or investment property, since all of that affects both flood and wind pricing. None of this page is insurance, legal, or tax advice; treat everything here as background for that conversation, not a quote or guarantee for a specific property.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from Wikipedia's own Longport, New Jersey entry (a borough in Atlantic County on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island shared with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City; 2020 census population 893, down 0.2 percent from 895 in 2010; total area 1.56 square miles, 0.40 square miles land and 1.16 square miles water, roughly 74.49 percent water; storms eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets between 1900 and 1916; a 2018 average property tax bill of $10,872, the highest in Atlantic County that year, on a 2017 median home sale price of $767,500), and from DownBeach's own July 2025 coverage of Longport's seven educational dune-protection signs, installed after officials observed beachgoers standing on protective dunes, quoting Zoning Officer Bruce Funk on the dunes' ecological importance. FEMA's own Flood Map Service Center and Risk Rating 2.0 methodology documentation were used for general NFIP mechanics only. This page does not state a flood zone designation for any Longport parcel, a specific NFIP or homeowners premium figure, a specific windstorm or named-storm deductible percentage, a current property tax rate, a current median home price, current insurer availability information for Atlantic County, or any confirmed underwriting rule tied to a specific insurer; the centrality of flood and wind insurance to owning property in Longport is raised as a genuinely real, current, plausible consideration worth discussing with an agent, drawn from the borough's own confirmed geography and erosion history, not a confirmed insurer rule or premium figure. Confirm current flood zones with FEMA and current coverage, cost, and underwriting terms with a New Jersey-licensed insurance agent before relying on this page for a specific property. Nothing on this page is insurance, legal, or tax advice.