New Jersey Court Filings Intelligence

• 46.2% off-site owners: the share of New Jersey filings where the owner's mailing address differs from the property (rental, inherited, second-home, or transitional).
• Max gross cap rate 7.7% at HUD Fair Market Rent ($26,088/year) on the $338,200 median estimated market value. Excludes operating costs.
• 44.7% of filings are Pre-Foreclosure, the dominant lead category in New Jersey during the observed window.

At a glance

Filing type breakdown

Each row is a distinct case as recorded on the county docket.

Motivation breakdown

Among filings with a tagged motivation, the most common is High Urgency Pre-Foreclosure (35.1%), followed by Tax Distress (20.1%). This motivation breakdown is captured at the court-filing stage.

Based on filings tagged with a motivation sub-type at the court-filing stage.

Lender concentration analysis

Foreclosure activity is spread across many lenders, suggesting diverse distress sources rather than a single institutional wave.

Lenders in rank order, most active first. Market type reflects how concentrated foreclosure filings are among plaintiffs. Based on foreclosure filings with identified plaintiffs.

Distress composition

Distress diversity score: 2.41 (Shannon entropy across case types; higher = more diverse distress sources). The case-type shares are in the filing type breakdown above.

Top counties by court filings

The New Jersey counties with the most property-related court filings, in rank order. Counties with live deep-dive reports are linked. See all New Jersey counties we cover →

Property value distribution

Median: $338,200. Mean: $447,363. From third-party property enrichment.

Housing stock + distress signals (filing-weighted across New Jersey counties)

Underlying housing stock and distress indicators across New Jersey counties in Keystone's coverage, weighted by filing volume so high-filing counties dominate the rollup. From US Census ACS 5-year data. National reference values shown for context.

Source: US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS 2023 5-year), filing-weighted across New Jersey counties.

New construction across New Jersey (2025)

Total housing permits filed across the New Jersey counties we track. Trend signal on whether new housing demand is accelerating or contracting state-wide.

Source: US Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, summed across New Jersey counties.

Rent benchmark (New Jersey HUD Fair Market Rents, filing-weighted)

HUD Fair Market Rents averaged across New Jersey counties (spanning 6 metro areas), weighted by filing volume. FY 2026. Used to set Section 8 voucher amounts; investors use it as a defensible rent-estimate floor.

Source: US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents (2026), filing-weighted across New Jersey counties.

Macro context: home prices and national delinquency

Court-filing volume should be read against the broader housing-market backdrop. New Jersey's home prices and the national mortgage-delinquency rate are the two macro signals most directly relevant to foreclosure exposure.

Sources: Federal Housing Finance Agency state house price indices (FRED series NJSTHPI); Federal Reserve Board, Mortgage Delinquency 30+Day Rate on Single-Family Residential Mortgages (FRED series DRSFRMACBS). Updated quarterly.

Local-market benchmark

Demographics of the ZIPs where New Jersey filings cluster, weighted by filing count and benchmarked against Census ACS 2023 5-year:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates, filing-weighted across 10 top ZIPs.

Most active foreclosure plaintiffs in New Jersey

Top mortgage holders and servicers named in New Jersey foreclosure complaints. Names are normalized to collapse common legal-suffix variants.

Source: public foreclosure filings in New Jersey. Court records are public information.

Municipality filing concentration across New Jersey

Galloway Township has the most property-related court filings in New Jersey, predominantly Pre-Foreclosure. Distress is dispersed across many municipalities.

Municipalities in rank order, most court filings first, among filings with a municipality on record. Municipality names from public property records.

FEMA flood zone exposure across New Jersey

Are distressed properties concentrated in flood-prone areas? By checking each property's coordinates against FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, we identify which filings fall in Special Flood Hazard Areas (mandatory flood insurance zones). This analysis covers properties with geocoded locations.

Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL), queried by property coordinates. Zones A/AE/AH/AO/V/VE are Special Flood Hazard Areas (1% annual flood chance, mandatory flood insurance). Zone X is minimal risk.

How foreclosure works in New Jersey

New Jersey is a judicial foreclosure state. Mortgage foreclosures go through the Superior Court, Chancery Division, and the property is sold at a sheriff sale.

New Jersey has no fixed foreclosure length. Every case goes through the Superior Court, and contested or mediated cases commonly take years; the law sets the early steps (below), not a total.

1. Default: The borrower falls behind on mortgage payments. For a principal residence, federal servicing rules generally bar a foreclosure filing until the loan is more than 120 days delinquent (12 CFR 1024.41(f)).
2. Notice of Intention to Foreclose: For a residential mortgage, the lender sends a notice of intention to foreclose by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 30 and no more than 180 days before accelerating or filing. It states the amount needed to cure, a cure date at least 30 days after the notice is effective, and that free housing counseling is available through the Judiciary’s Foreclosure Mediation Program (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-56, as amended by P.L.2019, c.69). For an owner-occupied 1-to-4 unit home, notice of the mediation option comes with it (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-76).
3. Complaint filed: The lender files in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, and a lis pendens is recorded. For an eligible home, the homeowner again receives written notice of the option to join the Foreclosure Mediation Program (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-76).
4. Service of process: Everyone with an interest in the property is served. Court rules set the time to answer the complaint.
5. Mediation window: The borrower who signed the mortgage on an owner-occupied 1-to-4 unit home has at least 60 days after receiving the complaint and summons to start mediation, or the court may order it when the homeowner files an answer (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-77).
6. Entry of default: If no answer is filed, default is entered.
7. Final judgment: Uncontested cases are generally processed through the Judiciary’s Office of Foreclosure; contested cases go before a Chancery judge. The court enters final judgment of foreclosure.
8. Writ of execution: A writ of execution goes to the county sheriff, who advertises and schedules the sale. Sale dates are often adjourned.
9. Sheriff sale: Public auction run by the county sheriff. The sheriff’s deed is delivered after the sale; when, and whether any redemption applies first, is not checked here.

Redemption: Whether the owner can redeem after the sheriff’s sale, and until when, is not yet checked for this guide against New Jersey’s court rules; an attorney licensed in New Jersey can say what applies.

Deficiency judgments: The deficiency rules (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-2, 2A:50-3) were not yet checked for this guide.

Reinstatement: For a residential mortgage that needs a notice of intention, the debtor can cure the default and reinstate the mortgage at any time up to the entry of final judgment (or of an order of redemption), by paying what would have been due without the default, court costs and attorneys’ fees up to the amount the court rules allow, and contractual late charges. The cure can be used only once every 18 months, a limit that does not apply to a cure by the date given in the notice of intention (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-57).

Mediation: The borrower who signed the mortgage on an owner-occupied 1-to-4 unit home can enter the Judiciary’s Foreclosure Mediation Program: the homeowner has at least 60 days after receiving the complaint to start it, or the court may order it when the homeowner answers; a trained counselor from a HUD-certified housing counseling agency signs the homeowner’s certification, and there is no fee (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-75 to -78).

Full guide: How foreclosure works in New Jersey. Federal servicing rules: the CFPB 120-day pre-foreclosure rule (12 CFR 1024.41(f)).

General information about New Jersey law, checked October 2026. This is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Talk to an attorney licensed in New Jersey before relying on it.

Read more: New Jersey foreclosure timeline and the foreclosure timeline by state.

Methodology and data sources

• Based on public court filings, analyzed by Keystone. As of October 2026. Court records are public information.
• These statistics describe property-related court filings in the New Jersey counties we cover. The owner-of-record match and the entity-owner screen are applied to delivered leads, not to these aggregate statistics.
• Property value figures come from property records where available.
• Individual case data, defendant names, and property addresses are not published. Reports show aggregated statistics only.
• See /reports/methodology for full data sources, sample sizes, and limitations.
• This report is current as of October 2026 (generated 2026-10-28).

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