2024

This January marked the culmination of NJHMFA's 40th anniversary year. Over the course of the preceding year, the Agency has consistently delivered on its mission to facilitate access to affordable housing for New Jerseyans. In furtherance of these efforts, the Agency has prioritized assisting families, while also providing municipalities with the tools to offer affordable housing to their residents and to revitalize neighborhoods from Sussex County to Cape May and everywhere in between.  

NJHMFA continues to prioritize innovation, with its new and expanded programmatic offerings achieving laudable results. Over the last few years, the Agency, in partnership with the Governor and the Legislature has created three new housing production subsidy programs — the Affordable Housing Production Fund (AHPF), the Urban Preservation Program (UPP) and the Workforce Housing Program (WFH). Combined, these three programs have committed a total of $480 million in funds towards the preservation and renewal of existing affordable housing and the creation of new affordable and workforce housing units. This figure represents 90 percent of the $535 million allocated to the agency for programs that fill the financing gap and leverage otherwise underutilized Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) and tax-exempt volume cap. Launching three new programs and committing nearly half a billion dollars through them within two and a half years is an achievement in itself. The result of these investments has been nothing short of remarkable. Combined, these subsidy programs will produce a combined 4,808 new affordable housing units, 178 new workforce housing units, and 82 new market-rate housing units, and will also preserve 1,242 existing affordable units, ensuring that they will remain affordable for years to come. In other words, these programs alone will have created or preserved 6310 much needed homes across our state. The Agency’s traditional portfolio of multifamily lending products compounds these effects, with 3,797 housing opportunities financed in 2024 alone, leading to a total of 26,424 new affordable homes produced since 2018.

Additionally, the Agency’s homebuyer assistance program continues to expand, ensuring housing market access for thousands of families in our ever-competitive New Jersey housing market. Despite shrinking real estate inventory and escalating interest rates, the number of New Jersey households utilizing our assistance to achieve homeownership continues to rise each year, proving New Jersey families can attain and sustain homeownership if we remain committed to helping them take the first critical step.

In 2024, our Down Payment Assistance (DPA) program provided 2,920 loans to 4,110 first-time homebuyers, a 26 percent increase from 2023. This program year, the establishment of the First-Generation Homebuyer Program helped drive homebuyer growth among families from historically marginalized groups. For example, Latino DPA program participation increased 30 percent from last year, Black non-Hispanic participation grew by 46 percent, and Asian-American and Pacific Islander program participation grew by 66 percent. Twenty-four percent more White non-Hispanic families than last year also used DPA to buy their first homes. Many of those who received assistance were the first members of their families ever to own a home, thanks to the launch of our First-Generation Homebuyer Program at the end of 2023. During its first full year of operation in 2024, first-generation homebuyers comprised 38 percent of the total loan volume funded through DPA.

Agency-funded single-family loans accounted for 3.58 percent of the total purchase market, a 25.5 percent increase in market share from 2023. This number approaches 5% of the total mortgage market, once cash purchases are removed from the analysis. Meanwhile, our Emergency Rescue Mortgage Assistance (ERMA) program continued to provide assistance to homeowners facing COVID-19 related hardships. In 2024, ERMA funded 4,091 loans totaling $123,398,397, a 50 percent increase over 2023 figures. The program is scheduled to wind down operations
throughout 2025.  

The program’s continued growth highlights NJHMFA’s critical role as a competitive lender that creates opportunity and continues to gain market share despite substantial housing market headwinds that would otherwise force its
homebuyers and development partners out of the market.

Together with our partners in banking, development, institutions, and government, NJHMFA continues to create pathways to support New Jerseyans from all walks of life find their way home in 2024, reinforcing our commitment to investing in people and changing lives throughout the Garden State.