Vacation Rental Investment in Longport, NJ
Longport is a genuinely unusual small-scale rental market, and its case for or against investment rests on documented, dated facts rather than any marketing claim. The borough sits on the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City -- putting a Longport property within a short drive of Atlantic City's casino-and-boardwalk tourism draw while remaining a much smaller, quieter, residential-feeling town in its own right. Longport is also unusually small and water-dominant: a total area of just 1.56 square miles, only 0.40 square miles of which is land against 1.16 square miles of water, meaning the borough is roughly 74.49% water today -- a legacy of a documented 1900-to-1916 storm-erosion event that permanently claimed 180 acres and ten numbered streets on the barrier island's southern end. Longport also carries a real, dated affluent-market reputation and a decade-long, fully litigated secession saga involving a neighboring waterfront enclave that sheds light on the borough's historical property-tax position. This page weighs what those confirmed, dated facts plausibly mean for a rental-property buyer, without inventing a current rental rate, an occupancy percentage, a cap rate, or a current short-term-rental ordinance that has not been confirmed.
A Small, Water-Dominant Island Shaped by a Historic Erosion Event
Longport's geography is not a matter of impression -- it is a documented, measurable fact. Per Wikipedia, the borough's total area is just 1.56 square miles, split between only 0.40 square miles of land and 1.16 square miles of water, making Longport roughly 74.49% aquatic today, among the highest water-to-land ratios of any small shore town on this site. That footprint traces back to a real, dated event: between 1900 and 1916, a series of storms eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets on the southern end of the barrier island, permanently reshaping Longport's geography. This was not gradual beach narrowing -- it was the documented loss of platted, numbered streets to the sea, and the borough's water-dominant shape today still reflects that history.
Longport occupies the southwest corner of Absecon Island, an 8.1-mile barrier island it shares with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City. That places a Longport property within easy reach of Atlantic City's casino resorts, boardwalk, and year-round tourism infrastructure, while Longport itself remains a small, largely residential borough rather than a resort-commercial strip. For a rental-property buyer, that combination -- proximity to a major regional tourism draw, paired with a small, quiet, water-bounded town of its own -- is a real structural feature of the market, though this page does not know how it translates into any specific property's achievable rental demand, and does not invent a figure for it.
An Affluent, Low-Density Profile -- With Dated Figures
Longport carries a documented, if dated, affluent-market reputation. Per Wikipedia, Longport ranked 22nd among New Jersey's most expensive ZIP codes in 2018, with a median home sale price of $767,500 in 2017. The borough's average property tax bill reached $10,872 in 2018 -- the highest in Atlantic County that year. The 2020 census recorded a year-round population of just 893, essentially flat from 895 in 2010 (itself down 15.1% from 1,054 in 2000), with a median age of 58.2 and notably low poverty rates. Those figures paint a picture of a small, wealthy, older, low-density community -- but they are 2017-2018 figures, not current ones, and this page does not update them with an invented current number.
A high historical average property tax bill and a top-tier ZIP-code ranking are useful context for understanding Longport's market position, not a substitute for a current pro forma. This page does not state a current median home price, a current property tax rate or assessment figure, a current active listing count, or any current rental rate, occupancy percentage, or cap rate for Longport -- get those from a local property manager, current Atlantic County listings, and your own accountant before assuming what any specific property costs to own or is likely to earn.
What the Seaview Harbor Secession Saga Signals About Local Property Taxes
Longport's most distinctive documented story is a real, decade-long legal fight that reached the New Jersey Supreme Court. Seaview Harbor is a waterfront subdivision developed in the 1960s within neighboring Egg Harbor Township, comprising 92 homes with private docks plus a restaurant and marina with 300 boat slips, with a combined assessed value of roughly $100 million. Beginning around 2014, Seaview Harbor property owners petitioned to secede from Egg Harbor Township and join Longport Borough instead -- and court evidence in that case showed a $1 million home would face roughly $31,400 in annual taxes in Egg Harbor Township versus roughly $9,800 in Longport. Egg Harbor Township's Township Committee denied the petition in 2016; a trial judge ruled against Seaview Harbor in February 2020; the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed that ruling in a 48-page opinion in December 2021, agreeing that deannexation would cause "the loss of social and economic diversity" and cost Egg Harbor Township roughly $2.3 million in annual tax revenue; the New Jersey Supreme Court denied further appeal shortly after, ending the litigation with Seaview Harbor remaining part of Egg Harbor Township.
That saga is a genuine, documented data point about the historical scale of Longport's property-tax advantage relative to at least one specific neighboring township, as entered into evidence in a specific court case -- it is not a current tax rate for either municipality, and this page does not treat it as one. Property tax structures, assessment practices, and municipal budgets all change over time, and the $31,400-versus-$9,800 comparison reflects a particular case record rather than this year's bills. Confirm current Longport and Egg Harbor Township property tax rates directly with Atlantic County government and each municipality's own finance office before drawing any conclusion about a specific property's current carrying costs.
Small Land Area, and a Real Reminder to Confirm Rental Rules With the Borough
Longport's 0.40 square miles of land is a genuine physical constraint -- there is a hard limit on how much buildable inventory this borough can ever hold, which is a real structural feature of the market whether or not it translates into any particular price or scarcity premium this page can quantify. That same small, water-bounded footprint also means flood and coastal-erosion exposure is a live, ongoing civic concern: in July 2025, Longport installed seven educational signs along beach crossovers, after officials observed beachgoers standing on protective dunes -- including to watch July 4th fireworks -- prompting the borough's own zoning officer, Bruce Funk, to note that "people don't understand how important the dunes are" and that the dunes are "more than just a pile of sand." The $5,000 initiative was funded through a CAFRA Trust Fund donation. It is a small, current, honest example of the borough actively managing coastal risk -- not a crisis, but a real reminder that dune and flood-zone conditions are worth taking seriously for any waterfront or near-waterfront purchase here.
This page does not state a current Borough of Longport short-term-rental ordinance, permit or licensing requirement, permit fee, minimum-stay rule, or occupancy limit, because none of those specifics were confirmed in the research behind this page. New Jersey municipalities regulate short-term rentals differently from one another, and rules can change -- do not assume that whatever applies in a neighboring Jersey Shore town, including Margate City, Ventnor City, or Atlantic City on the same island, also applies in Longport. Confirm current short-term-rental requirements directly with the Borough of Longport's own government, confirm flood-zone designations through FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and confirm any property-specific restriction through a title search and a qualified local real estate attorney.
New Jersey, Not Delaware -- and What This Page Does Not Confirm
Longport is a New Jersey market, and the same caution applies here as elsewhere on this site: New Jersey's state sales tax and its municipal and county property-tax structure are genuinely different from Delaware's no-sales-tax framework used in other markets on this site. Do not assume any Delaware-market tax framing carries over to Longport. This page does not state a current New Jersey sales-tax rate, a current Atlantic County or Borough of Longport property-tax rate, or any specific current assessment figure -- confirm current rates directly with Atlantic County government, the Borough of Longport's own finance office, and the State of New Jersey.
This page also does not confirm current median home prices, active listing counts, current rental rates, occupancy percentages, cap rates, or any nightly-rate or rental-income figure specific to Longport -- the 2017 median sale price, the 2018 ZIP-code ranking, and the 2018 average tax bill cited above are dated figures and should not be treated as current market data, and the Seaview Harbor tax comparison reflects a specific court record, not this year's rates. Get current pricing and rental-market figures from a local property manager, a short-term-rental data platform, and current Atlantic County listings. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice -- consult a qualified local attorney, accountant, or property manager before acting on any of it.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Longport's total area of 1.56 square miles (0.40 square miles of land, 1.16 square miles of water, roughly 74.49% aquatic), its location on the southwest corner of Absecon Island (shared with Margate City, Ventnor City, and Atlantic City), the 1900-to-1916 storm erosion of 180 acres and ten numbered streets, its 2020 census population of 893 (down from 895 in 2010 and 1,054 in 2000), its 2018 ranking as New Jersey's 22nd most expensive ZIP code, its $767,500 median home sale price in 2017, and its $10,872 average property tax bill in 2018 (the highest in Atlantic County that year) are drawn from Wikipedia's Longport, New Jersey entry. The Seaview Harbor secession saga -- including the $31,400-versus-$9,800 tax comparison entered as court evidence, the 2016 Township Committee denial, the February 2020 trial ruling, the December 2021 Appellate Division affirmance, and the subsequent New Jersey Supreme Court denial of further appeal -- is drawn from The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Press of Atlantic City, and DownBeach's coverage. The July 2025 dune-education-signage initiative, including Zoning Officer Bruce Funk's quoted remarks and the CAFRA Trust Fund funding detail, is drawn from DownBeach's own July 2025 coverage. Current Borough of Longport short-term-rental ordinance details and permit fees, current population and home-price figures beyond the 2020 census and the dated 2017/2018 figures cited above, current Longport and Egg Harbor Township property tax rates, the current New Jersey state sales-tax rate, flood-zone designations, and current nightly rate, occupancy, or rental-income figures specific to Longport were not confirmed this research pass and are not invented here. Confirm current short-term-rental regulations directly with the Borough of Longport, and confirm rental-market and tax details with a local property manager, Atlantic County, and the State of New Jersey, before assuming any specific rental use or return. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.