Estimates suggest that property damage along the New Jersey coast could hit $20 billion. That could mean if you’ve always wanted a place on the Jersey Shore, Regina Glezer says now may be the time to buy.

“I think a lot of people are just going to take what money they can from insurance and try to fire sale the properties,” she says.

Gelzer is a real estate attorney and life-long resident of Toms River. The coastal town was hit hard by the storm — homes were damaged, some were destroyed. Gelzer says many of them will be worthless.

“Something that was on the water that was say $2.2 million is going to drop significantly,” says Gelzer. “It’s still going to be over $1 million, but it’s going to lose a lot of value.”

At this point, New Jersey realtors say figuring out the market is more art than science. Some home owners have yet to even visit their properties. But Frank Shoemaker in Ocean City thinks plenty of people are happy to slap down half a million or more for a piece of ocean action.

“A lot of the shore towns in New Jersey offer a quick getaway. I think that’s something that kind of has an allure,” he says.

As they say in the real estate business, “location, location, location.”