The State of New Jersey Mortgage Lending

1. Approval held up — but not for everyone

Across New Jersey, lenders approved 90.2% of home-purchase applicants over the period and denied 9.8%. The headline rate has been remarkably stable through a refinance boom, a rate shock, and a cooling market:

2. Denials concentrate by geography

Where you apply matters. Denial rates run far higher in some counties than others — a pattern that tracks income and demographics more than it tracks individual creditworthiness:

3. What it actually costs — and how much lenders differ

On a typical home purchase, closing costs run about 1.93% of the loan statewide. But that median hides enormous spread. Among high-volume lenders, the cheapest charged Morgan Stanley Private Bank Na (0.90%), Citibank, Na (0.91%), Columbia Bank (0.97%) — while the priciest charged Nation One Mortgage Corporatio (4.64%), Mlb Residential Lending, Llc (3.82%), American Financial Network, Inc. (3.76%). On a $400,000 loan, that difference is thousands of dollars, on top of any gap in the interest rate. Check who overcharges borrowers like you →

4. The biggest lenders, by the numbers

5. After the loan closes: complaints

Most mortgage complaints New Jersey consumers file with the CFPB aren’t about getting a loan — they’re about servicing: payment processing, escrow, and struggling to stay current. That’s a reminder that who originates your loan and who services it are often different companies, and the service experience varies widely by company.