EXHIBIT 10(a)

2012 HOVNANIAN ENTERPRISES, INC.
AMENDED AND RESTATED STOCK INCENTIVE PLAN

2016 LONG-TERM INCENTIVE PROGRAM AWARD AGREEMENT

1.     Grant of LTIP Award. For valuable consideration, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., a Delaware Corporation (the "Company"), hereby grants the Long-Term Incentive Program award opportunity (the “Award”) listed above to the Participant, on the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth. This grant is made pursuant to the terms and conditions of the 2012 Company Amended and Restated Stock Incentive Plan (the "Plan") and the 2016 Long-Term Incentive Program adopted thereunder (the “LTIP”), which Plan and LTIP, as amended from time to time, are incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this Agreement. The Award represents an unfunded, unsecured right of the Participant to receive cash and/or Class [A/B] Shares (“Shares”) on the date(s) specified under the LTIP, subject to the performance and time vesting conditions set forth thereunder. Capitalized terms not otherwise defined herein shall have the same meanings as in the Plan or the LTIP, as applicable. A copy of the LTIP is attached hereto as Exhibit A.

2.     Amount of Award; Vesting and Timing of Payments. The target amount of the Award listed above represents the amount of cash and Shares that the Participant will be eligible to receive if the performance levels achieved during the Performance Period correspond to a payout level of 100% of target under the terms of the LTIP, assuming the time vesting requirements set forth under the LTIP are also met. The actual amount of cash and/or Shares payable in respect of the Award may be more or less than the targeted amounts, and the amounts (if any) that become payable under the Award will be paid to the Participant at such times and subject to such performance and time vesting conditions as set forth under the LTIP.

3.     Adjustments Upon Certain Events. Subject to the terms of the Plan and the LTIP, in the event of any change in the outstanding Shares by reason of any Share dividend or split, reorganization, recapitalization, merger, consolidation, amalgamation, spin-off or combination transaction or exchange of Shares or other similar events (collectively, an "Adjustment Event"), the Committee shall, in its sole discretion, make an appropriate and equitable adjustment in the number of Shares subject to this Agreement to reflect such Adjustment Event. Any such adjustment made by the Committee shall be final and binding upon the Participant, the Company and all other interested persons.

¹ Any portion of the Award in excess of Target is payable 100% in cash.

² Based on December 14, 2015 grant price of $1.56.

4.     No Right to Continued Employment. Neither the Plan, the LTIP nor this Agreement shall be construed as giving the Participant the right to be retained in the employ of, or in any consulting relationship to, the Company or any Affiliate. Further, the Company or an Affiliate may at any time dismiss the Participant, free from any liability or any claim under the Plan, the LTIP or this Agreement, except as otherwise expressly provided herein.

5.     No Acquired Rights. In participating in the Plan and the LTIP, the Participant acknowledges and accepts that the Board and the Committee have the power to amend or terminate the Plan and the LTIP, to the extent permitted thereunder, at any time and that the opportunity given to the Participant to participate in the Plan and the LTIP is entirely at the discretion of the Committee and does not obligate the Company or any of its Affiliates to offer such participation in the future (whether on the same or different terms). The Participant further acknowledges and accepts that such Participant's participation in the Plan and the LTIP is not to be considered part of any normal or expected compensation and that the termination of the Participant's employment under any circumstances whatsoever will give the Participant no claim or right of action against the Company or its Affiliates in respect of any loss of rights under this Agreement, the Plan or the LTIP that may arise as a result of such termination of employment.

6.     No Rights of a Shareholder. The Participant shall have no voting, dividend or other rights or privileges as a shareholder of the Company until the Shares in question have been issued or transferred to the Participant.

7.     Legend on Certificates. Any Shares issued or transferred to the Participant pursuant to this Agreement shall be subject to such stop transfer orders and other restrictions as the Committee may deem advisable under the Plan or the rules, regulations, and other requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission, any stock exchange upon which such Shares are listed, and any applicable Federal or state laws or relevant securities laws of the jurisdiction of the domicile of the Participant, and the Committee may cause a legend or legends to be put on any certificates representing such Shares to make appropriate reference to such restrictions.

8.     Transferability. This Award may not be assigned, alienated, pledged, attached, sold or otherwise transferred or encumbered by the Participant otherwise than by will or by the laws of descent and distribution, and any purported assignment, alienation, pledge, attachment, sale, transfer or encumbrance not permitted by this Section 8 shall be void and unenforceable against the Company or any Affiliate.

9.     Withholding. The Participant may be required to pay to the Company or any Affiliate and the Company or any Affiliate shall have the right and is hereby authorized to withhold from any transfer of cash or Shares due under this Agreement, the LTIP or under the Plan or from any compensation or other amount owing to the Participant, applicable withholding taxes with respect to any transfer under this Agreement, the LTIP or under the Plan and to take such action as may be necessary in the opinion of the Company to satisfy all obligations for the payment of such taxes. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Participant's employment with the Company terminates prior to the payment or transfer of all of the cash and/or Shares under this Agreement, the payment of any applicable withholding taxes with respect to any further payments of cash or transfer of Shares under this Award shall be made solely through withholding of cash or Shares otherwise payable under this Agreement in amounts equal to the statutory minimum withholding liability.

10.     Non-Solicitation Covenants.

(a)     The Participant acknowledges and agrees that, during the Participant's employment with the Company and its Affiliates and upon the Participant's termination of employment with the Company and its Affiliates for any reason, for a period commencing on the termination of such employment and ending on the second anniversary of such termination, the Participant shall not, whether on Participant's own behalf or on behalf of or in conjunction with any person, company, business entity or other organization whatsoever, directly or indirectly:

(i)     solicit any employee of the Company or its Affiliates with whom the Participant had any contact during the last two years of the Participant's employment, or who worked in the same business segment or division as the Participant during that period to terminate employment with the Company or its Affiliates;

(ii)     solicit the employment or services of, or hire, any such employee whose employment with the Company or its Affiliates terminated coincident with, or within twelve (12) months prior to or after the termination of Participant's employment with the Company and its Affiliates;

(iii)     directly or indirectly, solicit to cease to work with the Company or its Affiliates any consultant then under contract with the Company or its Affiliates.

(b)     It is expressly understood and agreed that although the Participant and the Company consider the restrictions contained in this Section 10 to be reasonable, if a final judicial determination is made by a court of competent jurisdiction that the time or any other restriction contained in this Agreement is an unenforceable restriction against the Participant, the provisions of this Agreement shall not be rendered void but shall be deemed amended to apply as to such maximum time and territory and to such maximum extent as such court may judicially determine or indicate to be enforceable. Alternatively, if any court of competent jurisdiction finds that any restriction contained in this Agreement is unenforceable, and such restriction cannot be amended so as to make it enforceable, such finding shall not affect the enforceability of any of the other restrictions contained herein.

11.     Specific Performance. The Participant acknowledges and agrees that the Company's remedies at law for a breach or threatened breach of any of the provisions of Section 10 would be inadequate and the Company would suffer irreparable damages as a result of such breach or threatened breach. In recognition of this fact, the Participant agrees that, in the event of such a breach or threatened breach, in addition to any remedies at law, the Company, without posting any bond, shall be entitled to cease making any payments or providing any benefit otherwise required by this Agreement and obtain equitable relief in the form of specific performance, temporary restraining order, temporary or permanent injunction or any other equitable remedy which may then be available.

12.     Choice of Law. THE INTERPRETATION, PERFORMANCE AND ENFORCEMENT OF THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE WITHOUT REGARD TO PRINCIPLES OF CONFLICTS OF LAW.

13.     Award Subject to Plan and LTIP. By entering into this Agreement, the Participant agrees and acknowledges that the Participant has received and read a copy of the Plan and the LTIP. The Award is subject to the Plan and the LTIP. In the event of a conflict between any term or provision contained herein and a term or provision of the Plan or LTIP, the applicable terms and provisions of the Plan and LTIP will govern and prevail.

14.     Signature in Counterparts. This Agreement may be signed in counterparts, each of which shall be an original, with the same effect as if the signatures thereto and hereto were upon the same instrument.

15.     409A. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Agreement, the Plan or the LTIP, this Award shall not be deferred, accelerated, extended, paid out or modified in a manner that would result in the imposition of an additional tax under Section 409A of the Code upon the Participant. In the event it is reasonably determined by the Committee that, as a result of Section 409A of the Code, the transfer of Shares under this Agreement may not be made at the time contemplated hereunder without causing the Participant to be subject to taxation under Section 409A of the Code (including due to the Participant’s status as a “specified employee” within the meaning of Section 409A of the Code), the Company will make such payment on the first day that would not result in the Participant incurring any tax liability under Section 409A of the Code.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have executed this Agreement.

HOVNANIAN ENTERPRISES, INC.

By:

________________________________

PARTICIPANT

By:

________________________________

Exhibit A

2016 Long-Term Incentive Program

1. Purpose

The purpose of the 2016 Long-Term Incentive Program (“LTIP”) is to aid the Company in retaining key employees and to motivate them to exert their best efforts on behalf of the Company. The LTIP has been adopted pursuant to the terms of the 2012 Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. Amended and Restated Stock Incentive Plan (the “2012 Plan”) and is intended to incentivize achievement of certain Pre-tax Profit goals and certain improvements in the Company’s capital structure through reductions of Interest Expense as a Percent of Homebuilding Revenue. Capitalized terms used herein without definition have the meanings assigned to such terms under the 2012 Plan.

2. Participants

The Compensation Committee will designate the Participants who will be granted incentive awards under the LTIP, with the first such awards to be granted on or about December 14, 2015 (the “Initial Grant Date”). Additional Associates may be eligible to participate at the discretion of the Compensation Committee or at the discretion of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (to the extent that the Compensation Committee has delegated granting authority to the Chief Executive Officer). The awards for Participants who are selected by the Compensation Committee to participate after the Initial Grant Date will be determined based on actual performance for the full Performance Period (as defined below) and will be prorated based on the number of full months of eligible service completed during the thirty-six (36) month Performance Period, subject to the vesting requirements outlined below in section 6.

3. Performance Period

The LTIP “Performance Period” will commence on November 1, 2015 and end on October 31, 2018.

4. Details

Each Participant will be eligible to receive an award based on the achievement of certain cumulative Pre-tax Profit levels in fiscal years 2016 through 2018, and certain Interest Expense as a Percent of Homebuilding Revenue levels in fiscal 2018. The award will be based on the closing Share price on the date the Participant is granted the award (the “Grant Date”); provided, however, that the Share price for new Participants will be no less than the Share price on the Initial Grant Date.

For purposes of the LTIP, “Pre-tax Profit” is defined as earnings (loss) before income tax expense as reflected on our audited financial statements, excluding the impact of any items deemed to be unusual or nonrecurring items for financial reporting purposes and excluding losses from land impairments and losses from debt repurchases/debt retirement such as call premiums, above par purchase prices and related issuance costs. “Interest Expense as a Percent of Homebuilding Revenue” is (i) the sum of cost of sales interest and other interest for Hovnanian as reflected on our audited financial statements and for our unconsolidated joint ventures as reflected on their respective financial statements for the twelve months ended October 31, 2018, divided by (ii) the sum of total homebuilding revenue for Hovnanian as reflected on our audited financial statements and total homebuilding revenue for our unconsolidated joint ventures as reflected on their respective financial statements for the twelve months ended October 31, 2018.

The following table illustrates the percent of the target award that can be achieved at each performance level. Awards will be interpolated between performance levels but will not be extrapolated above the maximum performance levels listed below.

5. Examples

Exhibit A

2016 Long-Term Incentive Program

6. Payout Method and Conditions For Earning Award

The award is payable fifty percent (50%) in cash and fifty percent (50%) in Shares provided, however, that (i) the target amount payable in Shares will be determined based on the Fair Market Value of a Share as of the Grant Date (subject to the limitation under Section 6(a)), (ii) any portion of the award in excess of target is payable 100% in cash. and (iii) the timing of payments for installments of the award in cash and in Shares will be determined using the respective values of the cash and Share portions of the award as of 10/31/2018, with all cash installments of the award becoming vested and payable before any Share denominated installments of the award becomes vested and payable pursuant to Section 6(b) below.

Suppose an original Participant’s target award is $260,000.00 and the closing Share price on the Participant’s Grant Date is $1.56. Fifty percent (50%) of the award up to target is payable in cash and fifty percent (50%) of the award up to target is payable in Shares with any portion of the Award in excess of target payable 100% in cash, resulting in a target cash award of $130,000.00 (target award x 50%) and a target stock award of 83,333 Shares (target award x 50% ÷ $1.56, rounded). Under this example, if the Participant earns one hundred and fifty percent (150%) of the target award, based on actual performance achievement, subject to the vesting requirements in this section 6, the Participant will be eligible to receive a cash portion of $260,000.00 ($130,000.00 target cash portion x 150% + $130,000.00 target stock portion x 50% (representing the excess “stock portion” of the award above target level, which is payable in cash)) and a Share portion of 83,333 Shares (83,333 target Share portion x 100%, rounded).

Assume that the Share price on October 31, 2018 is $5.00 so the value of the Share portion for vesting purposes is $416,665.00 (83,333 x $5.00). The value of the cash portion of the award is not affected by stock price fluctuations and therefore remains at $260,000 resulting in a total award value of $676,665.00 ($416,665.00 + $260,000.00) as of 10/31/2018.

Per the vesting schedule, the award vests fifty percent (50%) on 10/31/2018, thirty percent (30%) on 10/31/2019 and twenty percent (20%) on 10/31/2020 with the cash portion of the award vesting before the stock portion. Fifty percent (50%) of the total award value as of 10/31/2018 is $338,332.50 ($676,665.00 x 50%). Since the cash portion is less than this amount, $260,000.00 in cash and 15,667 Shares (78,332.50 ÷ $5.00, rounded up) will vest on 10/31/2018 and be paid in January 2019.

On 10/31/2019, an additional thirty percent (30%) of the total award value as of 10/31/2018, or $202,999.50 ($676,665.00 x 30%), is scheduled to vest. Since the entire cash portion had vested in the prior year, 40,600 Shares ($202,999.50 ÷ $5.00, rounded up) will vest on 10/31/2019 and be paid in January 2020.

On 10/31/2020, the remaining portion of the award is scheduled to vest. Since the entire cash portion and 56,267 Shares (15,667 + 40,600) had vested in prior years, the remaining 27,066 Shares (83,333 – 56,267) will vest on 10/31/2020 and be paid in January 2021.

Exhibit A

2016 Long-Term Incentive Program

For purposes of the LTIP, "Cause" shall mean the occurrence of any of the following: (a) the willful and continued failure of the Participant to perform substantially all of his or her duties with the Company (other than any such failure resulting from incapacity due to physical or mental illness) for a period of 10 days following a written demand for substantial performance that is delivered to such Participant by the Company, which specifically identifies the manner in which the Company believes the Participant has not substantially performed his or her duties; (b) dishonesty in the performance of the Participant's duties with the Company; (c) the Participant's conviction of, or plea of guilty or nolo contendere to, a crime under the laws of the United States or any state thereof constituting a felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; (d) the Participant's willful malfeasance or willful misconduct in connection with the Participant's duties with the Company or any act or omission which is injurious to the financial condition or business reputation of the Company or its affiliates; or (e) the Participant's breach of the provisions of Section 10 of the award agreement governing the LTIP award.

For purposes of the LTIP, "Good Reason" shall mean the occurrence of any of the following, without the Participant's express written consent: (a) any material diminution in the Participant's duties, titles or responsibilities with the Company from those in effect immediately prior to a Change in Control or (b) any reduction in the Participant's annual base salary or any material reduction in the Participant's annual bonus opportunity, annual equity awards or Long-Term Incentive Program awards from the Participant's annual base salary or annual bonus opportunity, annual equity awards or Long-Term Incentive Program awards in effect immediately prior to a Change in Control. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no event shall constitute Good Reason unless the Participant provides the Company with written notice of such event within 60 days after the occurrence thereof and the Company fails to cure or resolve the behavior otherwise constituting Good Reason within 30 days of its receipt of such notice.

Each Participant shall acknowledge and agree that the Company's remedies at law for a breach or threatened breach of any of the provisions of Section 7 would be inadequate and the Company would suffer irreparable damages as a result of such breach or threatened breach. In recognition of this fact, the Participant shall agree that, in the event of such a breach or threatened breach, in addition to any remedies at law, the Company, without posting any bond, shall be entitled to cease making any payments or providing any benefit otherwise required by this LTIP and obtain equitable relief in the form of specific performance, temporary restraining order, temporary or permanent injunction or any other equitable remedy which may then be available.

Exhibit A

2016 Long-Term Incentive Program

Adjustments Upon Certain Events. Subject to the terms of the 2012 Plan, in the event of any change in the outstanding Shares by reason of any Share dividend or split, reorganization, recapitalization, merger, consolidation, amalgamation, spin-off or combination transaction or exchange of Shares or other similar events (collectively, an "Adjustment Event"), the Committee shall, in its sole discretion, make an appropriate and equitable adjustment in the number of Shares subject to awards granted under this LTIP to reflect such Adjustment Event. Any such adjustment made by the Committee shall be final and binding upon the Participant, the Company and all other interested persons.

The Committee may amend, alter or discontinue the LTIP at any time, provided that no such amendment, alteration or discontinuation shall be made that would materially adversely affect the rights of a Participant with respect to a previously granted award hereunder without such Participant’s consent.