Waterfront vs. Non-Waterfront in Margate City: A Town About Eight Blocks Wide

A Narrow Island City, Ocean on One Side, Bay on the Other

Margate City was originally incorporated as the borough of South Atlantic City on September 7, 1885, carved from Egg Harbor Township, per Wikipedia. It was reincorporated as a city on April 23, 1897, and renamed Margate City on April 20, 1909, after Margate, Kent, England. The 2020 census recorded a population of 5,317, down 1,037 people, or 16.3 percent, from 6,354 in 2010 -- and 2010 was itself down 1,839 people, or 22.4 percent, from 8,193 in 2000. The city's median age is 58.7, with 11.4 percent of residents under 18 and 37.1 percent age 65 or older, and there are 89.2 males per 100 females. Margate has 7,124 housing units against only 2,651 households, a 62.8 percent vacancy rate that reflects a heavy share of seasonal and vacation homes rather than an empty, declining town. The population was 96.36 percent white in 2010.

Margate has operated under the Walsh Act commission form of municipal government since 1911, one of only 30 New Jersey municipalities to use this system, with three commissioners elected at-large to four-year terms. As of 2023, Mayor Michael Collins, Maurice Blumberg, and Catherine Horn served in that capacity until May 16, 2027, per Wikipedia. None of that civic history changes the underlying physical fact that drives this page: at 1.63 square miles total, with 1.42 square miles of land and only 0.22 square miles of water, Margate is a narrow island city where the ocean and the bay are never far apart, and where the eight-block span between them shapes the practical difference between waterfront and non-waterfront property here.

Oceanfront Exposure Is Real, Recent, and Named: Hurricane Erin

The clearest recent illustration of what oceanfront and low-lying exposure actually means in Margate is not a hypothetical -- it is a dated, confirmed event. On the night of Thursday, August 22, 2025, Hurricane Erin's storm surge triggered more than 50 water rescues in Margate, per 6ABC Philadelphia. At least 30 people were rescued from flooded restaurants on Amherst Avenue, including Sofia's and Maynard's; Maynard's owner Steve Troiano described the scene directly: "We had wet vacs. We were pumping it out of the back door and it was coming in the front door." Sixteen more people, plus three dogs, were rescued from stranded vehicles using high-water rescue vehicles. Margate Fire Chief Daniel Adams warned residents afterward: "Heed the warnings of your lifeguards. Pay attention. The rip currents are not going to be here for a number of days post this storm." A gas leak, an underground transformer fire, and an electrical fire were also reported that night, and officials anticipated similar flooding risk during the high tides that followed.

This was not the first time Margate's ocean-facing side proved more storm-exposed than its neighbors. A boardwalk built in 1906 sat closer to the ocean than Atlantic City's did, making it more storm-vulnerable; large portions were destroyed in the 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane, and remaining sections lasted only until the 1962 Ash Wednesday Storm, per Wikipedia. Hurricane Erin's August 2025 flooding on Amherst Avenue is a current, named, well-documented example of the same underlying exposure -- a real reason to take flood risk seriously on low-lying oceanfront and near-oceanfront blocks, without this page inventing a structural-damage figure or a dollar loss total beyond what was actually reported.

Bayfront and Interior Blocks: The Calmer Side of the Same Small City

With only about eight blocks separating ocean from bay at most points, Margate does not have the kind of large, buffered interior that bigger mainland towns do. Still, the general distinction holds: property directly on the ocean faces the open Atlantic, with the sun, wind, and storm-surge exposure illustrated above. Property on the bay side typically faces calmer, tidal water, often closer to docks and small-boat access than to the beach itself. And blocks in between sit at some remove from either shoreline, even in a city this narrow.

This page does not state a specific FEMA flood-zone designation, a specific street-by-street boundary, or a dollar premium for oceanfront versus bayfront versus interior property in Margate -- 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 the ordinary tradeoffs between direct ocean exposure, calmer bay-side water, and a more sheltered mid-block position apply here just as they do elsewhere on the Jersey Shore -- simply compressed into a narrower stretch of land than in most towns this site covers.

Marven Gardens: An Inland, Historically Distinct Neighborhood

Not every notable piece of Margate real estate sits on the water, and Marven Gardens is the clearest example. It is a genuine 16-acre historic district with 105 contributing buildings, mostly built in the 1920s and 1930s, added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1990, per Wikipedia. Its name is a portmanteau of Margate and Ventnor, because the neighborhood straddles the border between the two towns, bounded by Ventnor, Winchester, Fredericksburg, and Brunswick Avenues. This page does not extend Marven Gardens' boundaries beyond that confirmed description.

Marven Gardens is also, famously, a Monopoly board property -- but the game misspelled it as "Marvin Gardens" on the original board, an error traced back to Charles and Olive Todd, who taught the game to Charles Darrow, whose homemade board was later copied by Parker Brothers. In 1995, Parker Brothers formally acknowledged the mistake and apologized to residents. Marven Gardens is the only property on the Monopoly board not actually located within Atlantic City itself. Today, street signs in the neighborhood display its Monopoly heritage, with yellow backgrounds and replica house game pieces, and more than 48 percent of homes there are seasonally occupied. It stands as a real, inland, historically distinct neighborhood in a city otherwise defined by its narrow run from ocean to bay -- a useful reminder that "waterfront vs. non-waterfront" is not the only lens Margate real estate can be seen through, even if it is the one this page focuses on.

New Jersey Is Genuinely Different From Delaware Here

Margate City is this site's eleventh New Jersey market, following Cape May, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Strathmere, and Longport. 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 Margate property sits directly on the ocean, on the bay side, or on one of the city's interior blocks, including in Marven Gardens. 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 Margate City property tax rate, or any specific current assessment figure. Atlantic County government, Margate 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 Margate. 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 5,317, itself down 16.3 percent from 6,354 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 Margate parcel, oceanfront, bayfront, or interior, including in Marven Gardens.

We also did not find, and do not invent, any indication of structural or permanent property damage from the August 2025 Hurricane Erin flooding beyond the confirmed water rescues and the reported gas leak, transformer fire, and electrical fire -- we do not state a casualty count or a dollar-damage total. We did not find, and do not invent, precise current occupancy or valuation figures for Marven Gardens beyond the confirmed "over 48 percent seasonally occupied" figure, nor do we invent specific current restaurant, shop, or business names in Margate beyond Sofia's and Maynard's, both confirmed as flooded in the August 2025 event.

Before comparing a specific oceanfront, bayfront, or interior-block listing, get current, address-specific comparable sales from a local Margate agent who knows this narrow, eight-block-wide city, 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 Margate City directly, rather than assuming any neighboring market's figures or this page's dated facts still apply.