What is an appraisal contingency
and does the statewide form print one?

An appraisal is a licensed appraiser's independent opinion of market value, ordered by the lender. An appraisal contingency is the separate thing: a condition in the contract that lets a buyer renegotiate or withdraw if that value lands under the agreed price. The New Jersey statewide form does not print one, and on that form a low value cancels nothing on its own. What it can do is reach the loan, because a lender that will not lend on the appraised number can leave the mortgage commitment unmet. That is where the protection on the form runs.

Say a buyer in Gloucester County is under contract at $400,000 and the appraisal comes back at $385,000. The $15,000 difference does not undo the contract by itself. What happens next depends on what the parties wrote into their own agreement, on what the loan's paperwork says, and on whether a notice date is running. Those figures are an illustration, not an offer or a quote.

Two things are worth keeping separate. A deal often carries documents beyond the statewide form, and some loan programs bring their own paperwork on a low appraisal, so the form is not the whole picture on any given contract. Timing is the other. On the state form nearly every contingency runs on written notice inside a set number of days, and letting a date pass without notice generally waives it. Silence is the default answer.

What to ask, and who answers it: your lender can say what a low value does to your loan and what your program's own documents provide. Your agent can tell you how the offer in front of you is written and which dates are running. What a particular clause means for your situation is a question for a licensed New Jersey attorney, which is what attorney review is there for.