Hot Real Estate Market in Avalon

Builders cash in on hot market
By RICHARD DEGENER - Staff Writer, (609) 463-6711
Published: Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Updated: Tuesday, December 13, 2005AVALON - Builder Bob Stocki arrived at the shore from Delaware five years ago, just as the boom was taking off. He was immediately busy. He would get much busier. And that's good for him and his work crew.The boom hit in 2000, and it's been going up ever since. It's out of control. I'm building four or five at a time," Stocki said.Business is so good, he doesn't have to advertise. People drive by a job site, see his sign and start offering him jobs. Most of the houses cost about $700,000, and that does not include the price of the lot.Stocki is amazed by how young some of the buyers are. Some are in their early 40s. He built a home for one man who is only 38. They have the money and want Stocki's unique brand of shore home, an older style similar to Nantucket's, with cedar shakes, huge porches, dormers, brick chimneys and no vinyl. Stocki built a $14,000 cypress wood picket fence at one Avalon house. He makes decks out of mahogany and tropical ipe wood."The theory is if they can afford to buy here, they can afford the maintenance. They don't want to see any vinyl," Stocki said.Stocki, 42, of Ocean City, gives a lot of credit to his architect, Mark Asher, for designing the old shore homes and attracting so much business."He has 35 start-ups right now," Stocki said. The problem is finding labor. Stocki keeps a work crew of five to eight men busy. The building boom is a windfall for tradesmen."Labor is very hard to find. Anybody who's worth something is working," Stocki said. It's also a windfall for suppliers of lighting fixtures, decking, bathroom faucets, lumber and many other products. Ron Frame, a Middle Township builder working in Stone Harbor, said his lumber salesman is doing $1 million in business per month.Stocki left Wilmington five years ago to come to a place where he used to vacation. It's no vacation now, just work, and there's plenty of it.

To e-mail Richard Degener at The Press: RDegener@pressofac.com