Melanie Walter

As Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, Melanie Walter leads the State’s independent agency responsible for affordable housing and homeownership production programs, overseeing a diverse portfolio of single and multifamily financing and policy initiatives.

During her 4 years in this role, Executive Director Walter has modernized and expanded NJHMFA’s operational, financial, and programmatic activities, using extensive stakeholder outreach and data driven decision-making to reshape and expand the state’s housing production capacity. Through this work, ED Walter and her team have substantially increased the availability of high-quality affordable housing across New Jersey, financing more than 27,000 new multifamily units and supporting >10,000 first-time and first-generation homebuyers. In fact, today, one in 10 NJ renters, and 1 in 6 NJ low and moderate-income renters lives in a building NJHMFA financed.

Immediately prior to assuming the helm at NJHMFA, ED Walter served as Director of the Division of Local Government Services and Chair of the State’s Local Finance Board, in which capacity she led New Jersey’s municipal finance and bonding oversight entity, providing technical assistance, regulatory oversight, and financial support to local governments and regulated local unit note, lease purchase, Redevelopment Area Bond (RAB), Qualified Bond, refunding, ESIP, Ibank, and other transactions.

Through this work she implemented policies and developed programs to enhance the financial health of municipalities, leading to improved credit ratings and reduced taxpayer burden. Before that, ED Walter, A William and Mary educated attorney, represented numerous state entities as a Deputy Attorney General in the NJ Attorney General’s Office’s Division of Law.