Ocean County Singled out as One of Worst Places to Own a Home

Ocean County, New Jersey is on a new national list and its residents and government officials probably are not too happy about it.

The Weather Channel has published a list of the worst place to own a home. Ocean County is ranked #6 on the list. It's the only New Jersey county on the list, and is one of the most populated county on the list.

In putting the list together, the Weather Channel says it did an analysis based on, "historical and risk-related weather, climate and natural disaster data reveals that certain counties in the United States are more at risk for natural impacts like severe storms, hurricanes and floods that often damage and destroy homes, putting lives and livelihoods at risk."

Here's what the Weather Channel says about Ocean County:

Ocean County, on the Jersey Shore due east of Philadelphia, is the most populous county in our top 10, with about 580,000 residents.

Superstorm Sandy made landfall just south of the county in October 2012, causing enormous storm surge that battered the county’s highly developed coastline, including places such as Mantoloking, Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights.

Boardwalks and amusement parks were famously reduced to splinters, but thousands of homes were also ravaged by the seawater and Sandy’s high winds.

NOAA estimated that Ocean County incurred $10 billion in damage from Sandy. For our 1996-2013 survey period, total damage was about $11.1 billion, trailing only the area’s northern neighbor, Monmouth County ($11.8 billion), and New Orleans (see above). In terms of damage per capita, Ocean and Monmouth counties rank No. 22 and No. 23 nationally, and No. 1 and No. 2 in the Northeast.

What landed Ocean County at No. 6 and Monmouth County outside of the top 100 (No. 121)? Ocean County has a modest wildfire risk from the Pine Barrens in its interior, and Monmouth’s wildfire risk was too low to score any points.

Ocean County also reported eight deaths in homes during the survey period to Monmouth County’s three, and Monmouth’s larger population reduces its per-capita damage and death scores.