Rent in New Jersey keeps climbing. The state's rebate for renters hasn't budged.
New Jersey's Anchor program pays non-senior renters $450 a year, the same amount it paid when the program launched in 2022, NJ Spotlight News reported. Over the same stretch, the fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the state has risen more than 40%, from $1,628 to $2,282, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's annual "Out of Reach" reports.
That has advocates calling on lawmakers to rethink how the state hands out more than $4 billion a year in housing-related tax breaks.
How Anchor works
Anchor, short for Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters, was created in 2022 during the jump in inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. It's funded with more than $2 billion from the state budget and replaced the old Homestead benefit, which in its later years went only to homeowners and paid smaller amounts.
Homeowners earning up to $250,000 a year and renters earning up to $150,000 are generally eligible. Homeowners get $1,000 or $1,500, depending on income. Renters get $450, or $700 if they're seniors.
Last year, nearly 1.2 million homeowners and nearly 685,000 tenants received Anchor benefits, according to state budget documents.
This year's application deadline is Nov. 2. According to the state Division of Taxation, the state filed automatically for most eligible renters and most homeowners under 65, and mailed confirmation letters on Aug. 10. Seniors and people receiving Social Security disability or Railroad Retirement disability benefits have to file the combined PAS-1 application themselves. Anyone eligible who didn't get a letter can also file on their own.
Renters vs. homeowners
Peter Chen, who leads the Trenton-based New Jersey Policy Perspective, said renters are the ones most often spending more than 30% of their income on housing, which makes them "most at risk of losing their homes."
"A homeowner is paying into their mortgage and building equity," Chen said. "A renter is not, and so they're often in a much more precarious situation, economically."
Homeowners are feeling the squeeze too. The average local property tax bill rose $475 last year to a record $10,570, according to the state Department of Community Affairs, and has climbed more than 11% since 2022. Homeowner Anchor benefits have also generally stayed flat.
New Jersey is one of 21 states that extend property tax relief to renters in some form, according to a 2023 report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which noted that landlords pass at least some of their property tax costs to tenants through higher rents.
Asked in an NJ PBS interview whether she'd consider raising the renter rebate, Gov. Mikie Sherrill pointed to her administration protecting Anchor benefits during a tight budget year and to a new state law banning algorithmic rent-setting by landlords. "We'll continue to look at the needs of our renter population," she said.
Chen's group has also called for doubling the $700 senior rebate, and has criticized Stay NJ, a separate program for seniors funded at more than $750 million, because it leaves out senior renters entirely. Earlier this year, Sherrill and Democratic legislative leaders lowered Stay NJ's original income ceiling and steered its largest benefits to senior homeowners earning $100,000 or less.
Since 2022, annual U.S. inflation has ranged from 2.7% to 6.5%, and it stood at 3.4% as of August, with shelter costs up 3%, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is not a construction story on its face, but it touches the business in a few ways. Many contractors, and a lot of the people who work for them, are renters or homeowners who qualify for Anchor, so the Nov. 2 deadline is worth passing along to crews. Contractors who own rental property should also pay attention: the debate over how property taxes flow into rents, and whether the state should shift relief toward tenants, could shape housing policy in Trenton. Most of all, the gap between a frozen $450 rebate and rents that rose more than 40% is another sign of how short New Jersey is on housing. Rebates don't fix that. More homes do, and that's where contractors come in.