Property Tax in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey

New Jersey Runs a Real Tax System, Not a No-Sales-Tax Framing

Point Pleasant Beach is a New Jersey market, and New Jersey has a real, functioning state sales tax alongside its own property-tax structure, genuinely different from any no-sales-tax state framing that simply does not apply here. Property taxes in New Jersey are assessed and levied locally, under state law, by each municipality and county, and there is no single statewide rate applied uniformly to every borough. Point Pleasant Beach's own rate is set through its own municipal budget process combined with the Ocean County levy and its local school district's share.

This page will not state a specific current New Jersey state sales-tax percentage or a specific current Point Pleasant Beach, Ocean County, or school-district property tax rate, because none was confirmed during this research pass. Rates and assessment practices change year to year and vary by municipality even within the same county, so a figure quoted for a different Ocean County shore town should never be assumed to carry over to Point Pleasant Beach without direct verification.

A Borough Incorporated in 1886 From Brick Township

Point Pleasant Beach was incorporated as a borough on May 18, 1886, by act of the New Jersey Legislature, following a referendum passed the day before on May 17, 1886, carving the new municipality out of portions of Brick Township. The name reflects simply the town's location on the Jersey Shore; no more elaborate name-origin story is documented for it.

Today the borough covers a total of 1.74 square miles, split between 1.42 square miles of land and 0.32 square miles of water, 18.22 percent of its total area, sitting at the northern end of the Barnegat Peninsula, the barrier island separating Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The 2020 census counted 4,766 residents, up 101 people, a 2.2 percent increase, from 4,665 in 2010, itself a 12.2 percent decline from 5,314 counted in 2000. The 2020 median age was 50.2, and the source records 100 percent of residents living in an urban area. That 1886 incorporation gave the borough its own tax base separate from Brick Township and from every other Ocean County shore town; a rate or assessment quoted elsewhere carries no weight here.

Jenkinson's Boardwalk: A Century-Old Family Business Anchoring the Tax Base

Point Pleasant Beach's most distinctive economic feature is Jenkinson's, a single, continuously-operating family business rather than a collection of separately owned attractions. Charles Jenkinson, who had previously run soda fountains in Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, acquired property here in 1926, and in 1928 opened Jenkinson's Pavilion with a candy shop, soda fountain, refreshment stand, novelty store, and a swimming pool across the boardwalk. A dance hall followed in 1929 and a miniature golf course was added despite the Depression, with additional beachfront property acquired near the inlet by 1934.

After Charles Jenkinson's death in 1937, his son Orlo continued the business, adding a miniature train ride in 1949 and a kiddie park in 1954. By the late 1970s the struggling operation was purchased by Pasquale "Pat" Storino, who renovated the Pavilion and added an arcade, restaurant, and dinner theater in 1978, then unified the destination by acquiring Fun Fair in 1980 and Holiday Playland, later Jenkinson's South, in 1983. A 1989 fire destroyed the original Pavilion, and Storino rebuilt it as a new 1,200-seat facility with restaurants, bars, and arcade space.

Today Jenkinson's spans roughly a mile of boardwalk running from the Manasquan Inlet to New Jersey Avenue, and includes an aquarium opened in 1991, a fun house added in 1998, an amusement park with roughly two dozen rides, mini golf courses, dining venues, and arcades. Nearly a century of continuous family ownership of a single commercial complex is a genuinely unusual feature of this borough's tax base, concentrating a meaningful share of the town's commercial ratable value in one long-lived enterprise rather than in a rotating set of separately owned concessions.

Two Real Storms in the Historical Record

Point Pleasant Beach's boardwalk has been physically reshaped by storms twice in the documented record. A September 1938 hurricane destroyed the boardwalk's southern portion, permanently shortening it to its present length; the boardwalk was never rebuilt to its earlier extent. More recently, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 destroyed nearly 2,800 feet of the borough's boardwalk, with repair costs estimated at up to two million dollars.

Separately from the boardwalk itself, the steel-hulled Scottish barque County of Edinburgh ran ashore here on February 12, 1900, becoming national news reported by The New York Times and later depicted in a painting by the noted maritime artist Antonio Jacobsen. Taken together, the 1900 wreck, the 1938 hurricane, and Sandy in 2012 form a documented pattern of real coastal exposure at this specific location, worth understanding before assuming this borough's flood risk and insurance costs will resemble an inland Ocean County property.

The Post-Sandy Mandatory Elevation Requirement and What It Means for Assessment

Following Hurricane Sandy's 2012 damage, a seawall was constructed along the borough's oceanfront, and residents were required to elevate homes on pilings above Sandy's storm-surge level. That mandatory elevation requirement is directly relevant to property tax and insurance planning here: an elevated home built or raised to meet that standard can carry a different assessed value, a different flood-insurance premium, and different construction and permitting costs than an older, unelevated structure of similar size and location.

No specific current figure for the cost of elevating a home, the resulting change in assessed value, or the flood-insurance premium difference between an elevated and unelevated property was confirmed during this research pass, so this page presents the elevation requirement as a real, verifiable factor rather than a quantified one. A prospective buyer should ask directly whether a specific property has been elevated to the current required standard, and should confirm with the borough construction office and a flood-insurance agent how that status affects both the assessment and the ongoing insurance cost, before assuming any figure quoted for a non-elevated or inland property will apply.

What to Verify Before Budgeting a Purchase

What is confirmed here: Point Pleasant Beach is a 1.74-square-mile Ocean County borough (1.42 square miles land, 0.32 square miles water) incorporated May 18, 1886 from portions of Brick Township, following a referendum passed May 17, 1886; its 2020 census population was 4,766, up from 4,665 in 2010 and down from 5,314 in 2000; Jenkinson's has operated continuously as a single family business on the boardwalk since 1928; a September 1938 hurricane permanently shortened the boardwalk; the County of Edinburgh ran ashore here in 1900; Hurricane Sandy destroyed nearly 2,800 feet of boardwalk in 2012 with repair costs estimated up to two million dollars; a seawall was subsequently built and homes were required to be elevated above Sandy's storm-surge level; and New Jersey itself runs a real state sales tax and its own locally administered property-tax system, not a no-sales-tax framing borrowed from elsewhere.

What this page will not do is invent a current Point Pleasant Beach property tax rate, current assessed value, current tax bill, current home-elevation cost, or current New Jersey sales-tax percentage, because none was independently confirmed during this research pass. Get the actual current numbers directly from the Ocean County Board of Taxation, the Point Pleasant Beach tax assessor's office, the borough construction office for any elevation-compliance question, and a local real estate agent or accountant familiar with this stretch of the Barnegat Peninsula before making an offer. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.