Home Mortgage Lending in Camden, New Jersey: 2018-2022
KATHARINE L. NELSON
KATHE NEWMAN
LAUREN NOLAN
August 2026
In partnership with the Rutgers Bloustein School's Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement and St. Joseph's Carpenter Society, a community development corporation in Camden, New Jersey, we sought to better understand home purchase and improvement lending in Camden between 2018 and 2022, a decade after the 2008 financial and liquidity crisis and the 2009 Great Recession significantly restricted credit access. We looked at patterns of home purchase and improvement mortgage originations, applications, and denials in Camden and found higher mortgage denial rates than elsewhere in the region, more expensive mortgages from the companies that have lower denial rates, and a critical gap in access to home repair loans. Our findings point to the prominent importance of non-depository mortgage companies in the provision of housing credit, raising concerns both about lender regulation and the need for greater bank presence in Camden's mortgage markets.
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