All the advertisements I saw over 70 years ago advertised heavily for people to buy vacation properties at the Jersey shore. They had trains from big cities enticing people to vacation in these barrier islands. There were very few homes on these islands, mostly hotels, until the developers started building vacation homes to convince the city dwellers to escape their hot summers for a cool ocean breeze. They were vacation homes, not permanent homes, so I am not sure what these so called “locals” are talking about. Those that took a chance and bought property made a good investment.