Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

We’ve all seen the photos – of the gleaming new LEED-certified apartment building with solar panels on the roof, classy high-efficiency windows, and a sleek overall look.

The compromise omnibus measure, approved a few days earlier by Congress, funds the federal government through September 30, 2014, authorizing $1.012 trillion in total discretionary spending. For the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (FY 2014), the FY 2014 appropriation is $45.5 billion, almost $4 billion higher than the FY 2013 post-sequestration level. Some HUD programs are funded at higher levels than FY 2013 while some programs have cuts.

On December 9, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released a new report on various aspects of U.S. rental housing that notes that many American renters have severe affordability problems because of weak income growth and rising rents.

Stuffed into the Dodd-Frank legislation, the tangible manifestation of the witch hunt after the subprime collapse, is a provision, the long-awaited and long-delayed Volcker Rule that put the entire LIHTC business at risk. Hauled out of retirement to chair President Obama’s task force, former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker believed America’s housing bubble was caused by financial sin: nefarious investment banks subverted wholesome commercial banks, taking consumers’ deposits and used them to concoct toxic assets flipped for fast bucks.

As he oversees Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s bold transition in the way it awards low-income housing tax credits and gap funds for new affordable rental housing developments, executive director Steve Auger is recognizing some initial dividends. These include continued heavy demand for available resources, an interesting and very diverse range of projects, and strong tax credit pricing for projects receiving awards.

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.