Waterfront vs. Non-Waterfront in Longport: A Borough That Is Three-Quarters Water

A Borough Built on the Water, Not Just Near It

Longport's 2020 census population was 893, essentially flat from 895 in 2010 (down 0.2 percent), itself down 15.1 percent from 1,054 in 2000, per Wikipedia. The borough was predominantly white (98.88 percent in 2010), with a median age of 58.2 and notably low poverty rates. James Long purchased property in the area in 1857; M. Simpson McCullough later acquired and developed the area in 1882, naming it Longport in Long's honor; the borough incorporated on March 7, 1898, via New Jersey Legislature action, carved out of Egg Harbor Township. None of that history changes the physical fact that drives this page: at 1.56 square miles total, with only 0.40 square miles of land against 1.16 square miles of water, Longport is a place where water is not a border feature at the edge of town, it is most of the town's actual area.

That geography also carries a real, dated price signal, even though it should not be treated as current. Longport ranked 22nd among New Jersey's most expensive ZIP codes in 2018, with a median home sale price of $767,500 in 2017, and its average property tax bill reached $10,872 in 2018, the highest in Atlantic County that year, per Wikipedia. Those are 2017-2018 figures, not current ones, and this page does not update them or convert them into a present-day estimate. But they establish that Longport was, even before more recent market cycles, already a comparatively expensive small borough -- and a borough where the physical scarcity of land, let alone waterfront land, plausibly matters more than it does in most other towns this site covers.

The Ten Streets the Sea Took: 1900-1916

Longport's water-dominant footprint is not simply an accident of where the borough's original boundaries were drawn -- part of it was carved out by the ocean itself. Per Wikipedia, between 1900 and 1916, storms eroded 180 acres comprising ten numbered streets on the southern end of the barrier island, permanently reshaping Longport's geography. That is a real, historically documented loss of platted, numbered streets to the sea, not merely a story about a beach narrowing over time. This page does not know and does not invent the specific names or precise boundaries of those ten streets beyond Wikipedia's own description of "180 acres" and "ten numbered streets" -- that level of detail was not confirmed in the research behind this page.

What matters for a buyer today is less the century-old event itself and more what it left behind: a borough whose southern geography was permanently reduced by the sea more than a hundred years ago, and whose current 74.49 percent water share is, in part, a lasting record of that loss. This is a documented historical event, not an ongoing crisis or an active lawsuit like the beach-erosion disputes at some neighboring Jersey Shore towns. But it is a genuine reason why "how much of Longport is actually land" is not a rhetorical question here -- it is a fact with its own dated history.

What Waterfront vs. Non-Waterfront Actually Means in a Borough This Small

In most towns this site covers, "waterfront" and "non-waterfront" describe two ends of a spectrum, with a meaningful amount of interior land in between. In Longport, with only 0.40 square miles of land inside a 1.56-square-mile borough, that interior category is necessarily compressed. Property directly on the ocean side faces the open Atlantic, with the sun, wind, and storm exposure that comes with that position. Property on the bay, marsh, and back-channel side faces calmer, tidal water, typically closer to docks and boating access than to the beach itself. And whatever residential property sits between those two water-facing edges is, in a borough this size, rarely more than a short distance from one shoreline or the other.

This page does not state a specific flood-zone designation, a specific street-by-street boundary, or a dollar premium for oceanfront versus bay-facing versus interior property in Longport -- those are address-specific questions that a local agent and FEMA's Flood Map Service Center can answer, and this page does not guess at them. What can be said generally is that the ordinary tradeoffs between direct ocean exposure, calmer bay-side water, and a more sheltered interior position apply here just as they do elsewhere on the Jersey Shore -- they are simply compressed into less total land than almost any other market this site covers.

How Much Is Waterfront Worth Here? Look Next Door.

One of the clearest illustrations of what waterfront access is worth in this part of the Jersey Shore did not happen inside Longport's own borders, but it is directly relevant to understanding the local premium on water. Seaview Harbor is a waterfront subdivision developed in the 1960s that sits within Egg Harbor Township, not Longport -- it is a separate, adjacent enclave, and this page does not claim otherwise. It comprises 92 homes with private docks, plus a restaurant and a marina with 300 boat slips, with a combined assessed value of roughly $100 million, per the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Press of Atlantic City, and DownBeach's own coverage of the dispute described below.

Beginning around 2014, Seaview Harbor's property owners petitioned to secede from Egg Harbor Township and join Longport Borough instead. The motivation was a documented, dramatic property-tax differential: court evidence showed that 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 -- a projected 5.9-cent tax-rate increase for its remaining residents. The New Jersey Supreme Court denied further appeal shortly after, ending the litigation with Seaview Harbor remaining part of Egg Harbor Township, not Longport.

Seaview Harbor's decade-long fight was ultimately unsuccessful, and it is not a Longport neighborhood -- it never joined the borough, and nothing on this page suggests it did. But a 92-home waterfront enclave with private docks and a 300-slip marina, worth a combined $100 million, spending roughly eight years and reaching the state's highest court specifically to change which municipality its waterfront sat in, is a vivid, real illustration of just how much waterfront access and its associated tax treatment can matter to owners in this exact stretch of the New Jersey coast. It is offered here as regional context for that premium, not as a description of any Longport property or neighborhood.

A Small, Current Reminder That the Water Itself Needs Protecting

Longport's relationship with its own shoreline is not only about erosion history and tax litigation next door -- it also shows up in small, current, civic decisions. In July 2025, per DownBeach's own coverage, Longport installed seven educational signs along its beach crossovers after officials observed beachgoers standing on protective dunes, including in a July 4th Facebook post showing people standing on the dunes to watch fireworks. Zoning Officer Bruce Funk was quoted: "People don't understand how important the dunes are. The diversity of wildlife there is amazing," calling the dunes "more than just a pile of sand."

The $5,000 initiative was funded through a CAFRA Trust Fund donation -- a coastal-development-approval requirement -- with the signs costing roughly $700 each to install. Each of the four sign designs includes a QR code linking to a dedicated website, "Our Dunes." It is a small story next to a century-old erosion event and a state-supreme-court-level tax fight, but it is a real, current one, and it underscores the same underlying point as the rest of this page: in a borough that is nearly three-quarters water, the borough's relationship to its own shoreline and dunes is an active, ongoing civic concern, not settled history.

New Jersey Is Genuinely Different From Delaware Here

Longport is this site's tenth New Jersey market, following Cape May, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, and Strathmere. 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 a Longport property sits directly on the ocean, on the bay side, or on one of the borough's interior blocks. Do not assume any Delaware town's tax rules carry over here.

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. The $10,872 average property tax bill cited above is a 2018 figure, not a current one. Atlantic County government, the Borough of Longport'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, bay-facing, or interior property in Longport. 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 893, itself essentially flat from 895 in 2010. The 2017 median sale price of $767,500, the 2018 ZIP-code ranking of 22nd most expensive in New Jersey, and the 2018 average property tax bill of $10,872 are dated figures, not current ones, and are not updated or converted into a current estimate here. We did not find, and do not state, a specific FEMA flood-zone designation, base flood elevation, or flood-insurance premium for any individual Longport parcel, oceanfront, bay-facing, or interior.

We also did not find, and do not state, the specific names or precise former boundaries of the ten numbered streets lost to erosion between 1900 and 1916, beyond Wikipedia's own description of "180 acres" and "ten numbered streets." We did not find any indication that Seaview Harbor pursued further legal or legislative action after the New Jersey Supreme Court denied its appeal, and we do not state that any such action is pending -- the litigation is described here as resolved, with Seaview Harbor remaining part of Egg Harbor Township. We also did not find, and do not invent, specific current restaurant, shop, or business names in Longport. Those are real gaps, disclosed here rather than filled with a guessed number or outcome.

Before comparing a specific oceanfront, bay-facing, or interior-block listing, get current, address-specific comparable sales from a local Longport agent who knows this small, water-dominant borough, and get a parcel-level flood-zone determination from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center directly. Confirm current New Jersey and Atlantic County tax figures with the relevant government offices, and confirm current beach, dune, and shoreline conditions with the Borough of Longport directly, rather than assuming any neighboring market's figures or this page's dated facts still apply.