Photo by John Soltes This house on West End Court in Long Branch is said to be the house where Bruce Springsteen wrote the songs for the album, "Born to Run."

By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

LONG BRANCH (Dec. 21, 2009, 6:45 p.m.) — The house where Bruce Springsteen is said to have written the songs on his celebrated album, “Born to Run,” was recently purchased by three New Jersey residents, one of whom is a man from North Arlington.

Gerard Ferrara of North Arlington, his sister, Kim McDermott, formerly of North Arlington and currently of Little Falls, and Ryan DeCarolis of Lincroft purchased the 828-square-foot house, located on West End Court in Long Branch, for $280,000.

Ferrara’s father, Joe, who grew up in Jersey City and then moved to North Arlington and then on to Woodland Park, first saw the listing online and the real-estate story evolved from there.

“The Bruce factor was great, but the location really sold us,” DeCarolis said recently. “$280,000 was a little bit higher for the surrounding area, but we got it under what they listed it for. … Property by the ocean is hard to come by.”

Ferrara agreed. “If it was in the middle of the Pine Barrens, we probably wouldn’t be interested at all,” he said.

The house, which currently sports a white porch and green shutters, sits a block away from the beach in the community of Long Branch. A two-minute drive west and one hits Monmouth University, a two-minute walk east and one is swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.

Both DeCarolis and Ferrara said they and McDermott are Springsteen fans and often enjoy his concerts in the local area, be it the Meadowlands or Asbury Park. But they are not globetrotters who follow the singer and the E-Street Band to every gig around the world.

“We don’t really have a game plan,” Ferrara said, adding that DeCarolis intends to live in the house.

Right now, the future is too far away from the excitement of the present. “I really can’t believe it,” DeCarolis said. “It all just kind of happened.”

Looks like they’ll have ample time to ponder the vision of Mary as “she dances across the porch as the radio plays.”