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On January 15, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued the documentation for an accounting rule change ratified in December permitting public companies, if they qualify, to elect to use a new proportional amortization method of accounting for their low-income housing tax credit investments rather than the less favorable equity method.

Debt financing of many different types for affordable multifamily rental housing properties will continue to be plentiful in 2014, according to industry sources. But keep an eye out on interest rates, developments at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the progress of the multifamily office realignment efforts at the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD).

In the Southern California city of Irvine, where most rental housing is owned by one company, the new Alegre Apartments will be something of a rarity – a multifamily housing development that will be perpetually affordable.

I would hate to live in a world without the low-income housing tax credit, which I hope will never occur. But ever since we ran David Smith’s article in June 2013 about what the world would look like without LIHTC, I have been pondering a question: Is this possible?

Boston Capital expects to close a $188 million national multi-investor fund in the first quarter of 2014, said Jeff Goldstein. The fund, 100% specified in properties, has a projected IRR to investors of 7.25%.

“We had a good solid 2013 and we’re looking forward to a good 2014,” says Ryan Sfreddo of New York-based syndicator Red Stone Equity Partners, LLC. He said the firm raised a total $325 million in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity from investors last year and is targeting about $450 million this year.

The new guidance does not establish substantive tax law. Rather it creates a “safe harbor” for structuring HTC transactions. Compliance with the terms of the guidance provides certainty that the HTC generated by a project will be treated as allocated to the investor and that the investor will be respected by the IRS as a partner in the allocating partnership for federal tax law purposes.

The Internal Revenue Service is soliciting public comments on the draft of a new IRS low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) audit technique guide.

Historic tax credit industry participants have welcomed and praised the new IRS safe harbor guidance and are optimistic that it will eventually restore a healthy flow of equity investment capital for new projects. But they suggested it will be a number of weeks before the spigot turns on fully because of ambiguous or challenging parts of the guidance that need to be clarified or addressed and until investors, developers, and practitioners come to consensus on acceptable features of partnership structures for new deals.

Back in my freshman year at Syracuse University, I survived one of my toughest learning challenges – calculus class on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings at 8. That barely edged out my class in geology, but at least there we got to build model volcanoes that actually erupted.

After another year of heavy mortgage volume, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is about to begin implementing another step in its multifamily “transformation plan” to cut FHA loan processing times even further and boost the agency’s share of financing for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects.

If you are a frequent reader of this column you know that energy, water, and utility efficiency is one of my pet issues.