well after a surge and short-term rental markets at the Jersey Shore last summer homeowners don't seem to be as lucky this year sky high prices have less some units and homes sitting vacant for much of the season with renters struggling to keep up after the toll that inflation and the economy has had on many families this year so could this significant change in the rental market be the new normal senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports in the past we've just had too much demand for the supply of vacation rentals everybody wanted to come to the Jersey Shore but this summer even in these last weeks of August some Jersey Shore rental properties remain unbooked and open I call it return to normal things have kind of return to normal the way they were pre-covered specifically that means the audience of people that vacation at the Jersey Shore is smaller it's still large but it's smaller the rental market is still very strong but uh overall I would say there's for us there's probably around the 10 reduction in rentals this year others in the market I've talked to other Brokers have talked somewhere around 15 to 25 experts say these drops are a correction to the rental market that spiked during covid throughout 2021 and 2022 more people than ever wanted to go to the Jersey Shore they weren't ready to travel overseas yet but they still wanted to to go on that trip to the beach with their family so you had reduced availability the record demand which meant occupancies reached record highs essentially every unit that was available was book solid Jamie Lane an economist who analyzes Shore Rentals says many homeowners used their Shore properties as their primary residence when work from home prevailed so now we're seeing Supply go back return to office is a thing and with those properties now back on the market supply this summer outpaced demand in some places which means the peak prices that homeowners could charge have had to shift downward as well people this year were spending twice as much time looking at twice as many listings but yet we were sending less inquiries to our owners which tells us that they're not finding value Tara hargenrader says increased home purchase prices played a part in the rising rental costs as well as the homes got more expensive to buy and people were looking to use them as rental properties and people wanted to see that return on investment on their rent property obviously the prices had to keep up with what they were purchasing their homes for plus Rising inflation rates if they have to fix things in their home all of those things have been inflated so if it costs them more to maintain their rental properties then they have to put the price up to keep up with that I have to imagine too that there's a piece of this where if people are willing to pay then homeowners are going to charge were people willing to pay more when covid was kind of still around and they wanted to stay close to home I would say that in 2020 and 2021 people were they just wanted to get out it didn't matter what it cost they were ready for a vacation now it seems like they got out they they did the vacation they don't feel secluded by covid anymore so now they're looking at the prices sometimes and they're like you know I can take five six thousand dollars and go to Disney World or go to Europe international travel is up 200 percent I mean we're looking at almost 39 percent of all Americans are doing some international travel this year that's that's a large number so for homeowners trying to compete with less demand and more Supply pricing is the name of the game say experts the more realistic and the more open they are to a better pricing methodology based on where the market is right now it gives them a better chance of getting that full summer booking and for those who still have weeks open this summer you might have to lower your price to make sure that you're getting that booking and making sure you're pricing competitively some hopeful advice for travelers looking to squeeze the last of these late summer weeks for NJ Spotlight News I'm Joanna Gagis [Music]