In this blog, we will cover and discuss the New Jersey Housing Market. New Jersey has the highest property tax rate in the nation but that is not slowing down home sales and home prices. New Jersey Housing Market is expected to be stronger than expected in 2022. New Jersey Housing Market has been growing year after year since 2013 despite high property taxes. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation followed by Illinois. 

New Jersey Housing Market Is Skyrocketing With New Residents and Businesses Migrating From Neighboring New York

New Jersey is attracting tens of thousands of residents fleeing New York. New York finances are a mess. Governor Cuomo, NYC Bill de Blasio, and newcomer Democrats such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez may be great talkers and crowd pleasers, but they do not seem to know how to run a government. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) recently ruined the relocation of Amazon’s second-world headquarters relocation possibilities to Queens. This cost the state nearly 40,000 high-paying jobs.  New York faces a $2.3 billion dollar shortfall. Tens of thousands of residents are leaving New York to other states with a low cost of living.

Why New Yorkers Migrate To New Jersey

Many who work in New York are moving to New Jersey due to the lower cost of living. Property taxes are higher in New Jersey but home prices are more reasonable. New Jersey does not face the financial disaster New York does. Despite having the highest property taxes in the nation, New Jersey’s demand for homes is stronger than ever. In this blog, we will discuss the New Jersey Housing Market and how strong it is for 2021.

New Jersey Housing Market Expected To Be Stronger Than Expected

The New Jersey Housing Market has enjoyed countless New York residents moving to their state. Now with the financial mess New York is in, more and more home buyers are crossing the border to New Jersey from New York. To add the fuel to the fire, the demand is increasing due to lower mortgage rates and lenders launching new loan programs like NON-QM loans, bank statement loans for self-employed borrowers, and other alternative financing programs. There is more demand for housing in New Jersey than there is inventory. This is creating a stronger than expected demand on the New Jersey Housing Market for 2021. Housing prices are still lower in New Jersey versus New York. Many wage earners from New York are leaving the state for New Jersey. You can get more house for the money in the state of New Jersey versus New York.

What Locals Say About New Jersey

Alex Carlucci, an Associate Contributing Editor, and Loan officer at Gustan Cho Associates, grew up in New Jersey. Alex has strong ties there. Gustan Cho Associates is a lender licensed in multiples states with no overlays on government and conventional loans licensed in New Jersey.

A large percentage of our borrowers at Gustan Cho Associates are New Jersey homebuyers. We have seen a sharp increase in buyers applying for mortgages throughout the state of New Jersey.  Despite the state having the highest property taxes in the nation, the housing market in New Jersey remains strong. There are more buyers than an inventory of homes throughout the state of New Jersey.

2022 Expected To Be Strong Year For Homebuyer: Data Released From The NAR

The National Association of Realtors released disappointing numbers for November 2019. However, data released for December 2020 were strong. It made 2019 finish on a strong finish and rallied the January 2020 numbers. It convinced most real estate and housing experts to predict a strong 2020 housing buyer’s market. It is not just real estate analysts that are predicting a strong year for 2020 for the United States housing market. But also economists and mortgage experts are predicting the same outcome even with the rumor that mortgage rates will spike the second half of the year. This is great news for home sellers.

Home Sales Statistics

Home sales for the month of December 2019 have gone up 2.4% to an adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million compared to the November 2019 figures of 4.92 million. December 2019 rates were up by 3.5% from December 2018 rates. The spring will most likely bring an extremely strong seller’s market. Inventory of housing has dropped 11.1% in December 2019 to 1.85 million of existing housing available that were for sale. Foreclosure rates and short sale rates were slightly increased in December 2019 to 11% from November 2019 statistics of 9%. However, the good news is that both foreclosure rates and short sale rates were dropped 14% from the same time of 2018 figures.

2022 Expected To Be Strong Year For Homebuyer Due To Historic Low Rates

Historic record mortgage rate fueled FHA streamline mortgage refinances.  Low mortgage rates have also triggered an increase of potential home buyers seeking pre-approvals from mortgage companies.  To add fuel to the fire in triggering more home buyers to act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have brought back the 3% down payment conventional loan for homebuyers to promote homeownership.

The 3% down payment conventional loan program was launched by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to compete with FHA’s 3.5% down payment home purchase FHA loan and with HUD lowering the annual mortgage insurance premium.

The third factor where 2021 brought problems in the housing market. The demand for new homes has triggered a housing shortage where home prices skyrocketed. Homebuyers were buying homes above the list price. 2022 will be a stellar year for the housing market. The housing market is the fact that mortgage rates are at historic lows. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are still in the low to mid 3.0%.  There are talks of the Federal Reserve Board increasing mortgage rates in 2021, but with all the other positive factors in the housing and mortgage markets, experts feel that it will have little impact on a stellar 2022 housing market and record home sales.