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New Jersey Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program)

New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency offers Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program) to first-time buyers in New Jersey: up to $22,000, as a forgivable loan.

Amount
$22,000 is the most you can get
Form of support
A loan that can be forgiven
Only first-time buyers
Yes

After 5 years, the loan is forgiven if you stay in the home and avoid refinancing.

A forgivable loan gets written off after you keep your home and its first mortgage for as long as the program requires.

Which buyers can get New Jersey Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program)?

  • Income limits depend on your area and household size, and Urban Target Areas allow more.
  • You must be a first-time buyer, which usually means no home owned in the last three years.

Your county and the size of your household set the exact income limit, shown on the income chart from the agency. Our HUD income limits tool shows the median income for your area.

Applying for New Jersey Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program)

  1. Because New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency sends this help through its approved lenders, you apply with one of them as part of your home loan.
  2. The lender reviews your income, your credit and the home under the program's rules, then sets the money aside for you.
  3. At closing, it is applied to your down payment and the costs of closing.

Check the full rules and current application status on New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's page for Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program).

For New Jersey Smart Start Program, the Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program, talk with a lender

Tell us where you're buying and a lender that works with New Jersey's programs can tell you whether New Jersey Smart Start Program (Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program) fits you, and what you could combine with it.

Call 866-602-7460

Not interested in calling? Share your information and the lender will get in touch.

When you send this request, you agree that one mortgage lender who works with these programs may contact you by email, phone or text, including by automated means, about this request. Agreeing is not a condition of any purchase. We are an independent guide, not a lender or a government agency; only that one lender gets your details, and it may pay us for the introduction. See our about page and privacy notice.

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