Monthly Columns Archives

On his first day in office, President Trump issued a Presidential Action aimed at reducing the cost of living and increasing prosperity for American workers. This includes directives to lower housing costs and expand supply.

In a story worthy of Charles Dickens, last Christmas Eve, Malcolm (Mike) Peabody, a 20th-century titan of affordable housing, died at the age of 96, all but unnoticed except for the legacy of initiatives and entities that he and his forebears have stood up over the decades. As I read his obituary, and that of his ancestor George Peabody, ‘the father of modern philanthropy,’ the thought came to me, entities endure. 

If you’ve chosen to read this essay, your work environment is governed by platform, pipeline, and portfolio and the health and evolution of this triad foretell your future as a player on that platform. 

When the CTA went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, both newly formed and previously established companies, large and small (but mainly small) were to provide certain information to FinCEN detailing: 1) “Beneficial Ownership” and 2) “Company Applicants.”

Dominating all policy headlines this year will be the tax bill as legislators seek to extend the expiring tax cuts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) before increases go into effect in 2026. Senate confirmations, congressional spending and addressing the debt limit are the other must-do items on the list, which will likely happen in the first half of the year.  

Just as markets are the crowdsourced wisdom on values, insurance is the crowdsourced wisdom on risks.

For an affordable multifamily housing project to qualify for the maximum allowable amount of four percent LIHTCs, at least 50 percent of the project’s aggregate basis (consisting of eligible basis plus land) must be financed with the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds issued pursuant to an allocation of private activity bond volume cap by a state housing authority or another municipal issuer (the 50 percent test).

If you own an income-producing property, you have an equity partner hiding in plain sight.  Despite never signing a document with you, your municipality owns somewhere between one-eighth and one-quarter of your property’s economics, a slice it can increase without your consent, and will own longer than you’ll own the property. 

If you own an income-producing property, you have an equity partner hiding in plain sight.  Despite never signing a document with you, your municipality owns somewhere between one-eighth and one-quarter of your property’s economics, a slice it can increase without your consent, and will own longer than you’ll own the property. 

Three and a half years after it began with the best of intentions, state-level programs and laws intended to help residents avoid eviction have cost many of the country’s largest, best and most ethical affordable housing owners upwards of half a billion dollars – and the total keeps rising. 

As shown in last month’s Part 1, the economically botched management of the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic precipitated the inevitable return of inflation. Though the household damage was palliated by enormous federal spending across two administrations, that cumulative largesse has now assured us that we will worry about inflation and deal with its consequences for at least the rest of the decade.

As several of the early Faircloth-to-RAD projects are completing their conversion to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, practitioners are also starting to better understand the legal “nuts and bolts” of how to close a transaction and ensure a smooth transition from Faircloth-to-RAD.