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Ocean Township gets the featured spotlight in this Sunday’s New York Times real estate section which goes in depth every week on a town in the New York metropolitan area. The article was posted today on the paper’s website.

Written by Times writer Jill P. Capuzzo, the article describes the various characteristics of the township, as well as giving demographic and real estate data. A slide show features shots from Wanamassa [above] and Deal Lake areas, as well as the ocean and Joe Palaia Park.

Local realtors Robert Roccia and Gerald Scarano are quoted discussing the different sections of the township, from Wanamassa and West Allenhurst out to Wayside.

From the Times article:

Ocean Township in Monmouth County has a bit of an identity problem. To start with, there’s another Ocean Township in neighboring Ocean County. Then there is the fact that despite its name, no part of the town is on the ocean (it’s about a mile inland). And as if those issues were not enough, most people who reside in the 10.8-square-mile community never actually say so, identifying instead with their specific neighborhood: Wayside or Wanamassa, Oakhurst or Colonial Terrace, Deal Park or West Allenhurst, to name several.

“People who live in West Allenhurst are those who want to live in Allenhurst, where it’s old wealth,” said Robert Roccia, a broker with the John C. Conover Agency. “Those in West Deal or Deal Park are looking for bigger and more expensive houses. Wayside is for the new professionals and young families. Those who want to break into Ocean look in Colonial Terrace. It’s closer to Asbury Park, but it has some beautiful homes.”

Ocean Township and Asbury Park, its more urban neighbor to the south, have long been linked; some sections in each municipality share a ZIP code, and until Ocean Township built its own high school in 1965, its students attended Asbury Park High. In addition, Ocean has Asbury Park to thank for some of its population: one group arrived in Ocean in the 1970s, escaping the riots of Asbury Park, according to Mr. Roccia, who also cited the more recent migration of members of the gay community that discovered Asbury Park as a vacation destination two decades ago.

The article also noted that Asbury Park has become an entertainment and social draw attracting summer and weekend residents to Ocean Township:

Being so close to Asbury Park was also a draw to Bob Frankel and Bob Giangrasso, who socialize there but prefer the calm of Ocean. They, too, are on their second home, a 6,000-square-foot ranch on a peninsula in Deal Lake, which they travel to each weekend from Greenwich Village. They are now looking for something smaller and have put the lakefront house on the market for $1.375 million. “Our social life is geared toward New Jersey, not New York,” said Mr. Frankel, a chief financial officer for a fashion accessory import company. “It’s where we spend all our quality time.”

The article states that despite the township’s location abutting “the urban and happening Asbury Park and the ostentatious Deal,” it has still managed to maintain a “homey, plain vanilla vibe”:

Though it abuts the urban and happening Asbury Park and the ostentatious Deal, Ocean Township has managed to maintain a homey, plain vanilla vibe. “It’s very quaint,” said Gerald Scarano, a broker for Cozy Real Estate in Asbury Park. “Everybody has nice little gardens; there’s no litter. You can have the best of both worlds: you can be a real suburbanite but still ride your bike to the beach.”

The article also cited residents who simply like the peace and quiet.

“It’s a good place to live because nothing happens,” the Times quoted long-time resident Lance Morton.

Click here for the full Times article.

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