Rental Permits Decrease 6 percent in Sea Isle City

SEA ISLE CITY– The number of rental permits issued in Sea Isle City decreased 6 percent last year, according to the taxpayers association. This is the fourth consecutive year of decreasing permit numbers, which are now down 12 percent or roughly 300 permits since 2006. At $125 per permit, this could be as much as $37,000 in lost revenues but, more importantly, what’s going on with our rental properties?
Since 2006, Sea Isle’s housing stock has increased. Developers have added more housing units, particularly since city ordinances encouraged building residential units over commercial stores in our business districts. So if anything, there are now more potential rental units not less!
Demographic trends could be at work here. More folks may be converting both newer and older homes for retirement, vacation or second home purposes. However, we have had this little recession thing, which has financially stressed most of us. It’s logical to assume that conversions would have slowed down and not sped up, as folks needed the rental income.
It’s also possible that the recession reduced vacations in Sea Isle. This is not supported by beach tag sales, parking meter revenues, water usage and trash volumes. Sea Isle had a fairly solid summer season! However, even if there were some tourist reductions, this is more likely to affect occupancy by week and not the number of properties renting for the summer season. Rental permits would still be needed and probably not greatly affected in the short term.
That leaves us with only one remaining possibility, which is that Sea Isle has non-compliance and enforcement issues.
If some owners have not been getting their permits, it is unfair to those that pay the fee and play by the rules. We can be sympathetic to owners who view last year’s 49 percent fee increase as a tax without any significant city service (i.e. originally permit fees were to pay for city safety inspections). However, that’s a fight for a different day. For now, the rules are the rules and renting owners should be getting permits.
Back in 2006, the mayor and commissioners proudly announced a new rental permit enforcement focus. The new approach was better and it resulted in plus 2 percent more permits that year. Since then, things appears to have slid back down the hill, with Sea Isle now having less permits than any time since 1999. It may be the current administration needs to redouble their efforts again!
The rental permit figures can be found in the Sea Isle City’s Taxpayers Association’s (SICTA) recently updated charts tracking many local activities through Sept. 30th.
Additional charts on many other aspects of Sea Isle City life are available on the SICTA website (www.sicta.org). Take a look if you want a deeper Sea Isle perspective.