New Jersey

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia updated its Rental Housing Affordability Data Tool for households in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The newly updated data suggest that housing insecurity was widespread among lower-income renters in the Third District even prior to the Coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic downturn.

Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital LLC announced the acquisition of Maher Commercial Mortgage, LLC. The team, led by Thompson Maher, is based in Philadelphia and will continue to focus on the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware markets.

The New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency (NJHMFA) announced the expansion and reopening of its Small Landlord Emergency Grant (SLEG) Program to assist vulnerable renters across the state by covering their missed rent from April through July 2020. The program reopened on September 28 and will run until Tuesday, October 13 at 4 p.m.

Pennrose and the Town of Dover announced that they closed on financing for Dover Veterans Housing, a new 70-unit affordable family and veterans housing community in Morris County, NJ.

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency released Developer Bulletin 2020-11, which outlines the LIHTC compliance monitoring relief, income recertifications and common areas and amenities relief it is offering in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief granted in this bulletin is subject to any superseding guidance issued by the Department of the Treasury or the Internal Revenue Service.

Enterprise Community Partners is transitioning from the 2015 to the 2020 Green Communities criteria. To certify under the 2015 criteria, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is requiring that the “Prebuild Submission” must be received by Enterprise by October 15, 2020. Any project unable to meet the October 15th deadline will be required to certify under the 2020 criteria.

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is requiring that all nine percent LIHTC applications be submitted electronically through LeapFile to the LIHTC mailbox by 12:00 pm ET on September 23. The application fee of $4,000 must be sent by check only—no wires—and must be received by September 23 deadline also.

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency updated its Multifamily Underwriting and Financing Guidelines and Policy, effective as of June 25, 2020. These Multifamily Policies have been amended to include requirements for the allocation of Sandy Disaster Recovery Program subsidies as provided in the 2014 “Voluntary Compliance Agreement and Conciliation Agreement” (VCA) with HUD.

If you are the owner of an apartment complex with 25 units or more (or represent such an owner) and you have not yet satisfied your MDRR obligations for the 2019 reporting cycle, please do so now. First-time filers must register their properties with DCR by emailing a completed Change of Status Form to dcrmdrr@njcivilrights.gov prior to submitting their MDRR report for 2019.

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is extending the ten percent test and placed-in-service deadlines for all 2018 and 2019 nine percent LIHTC owners

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHFMA) is extending the following deadlines for properties with 2018 and 2019 nine percent LIHTCs:

Ten Percent Test: The deadline to submit evidence that ten percent requirement of §42(h)(1)(E)(ii) was met is now 12 months after the date the carryover agreement was signed.

Placed-In-Service Deadline: The deadline to place affected projects in-service has been extended by 12 months following the end of the two-year period described in §42(h)(1)(E)(i).   

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) signed Executive Order 128