Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

The historic tax credit industry has been roiled by a sharp curtailment in closings of historic tax credit transactions and the availability of new equity commitments from major investors for new projects, as investors, tax attorneys, accountants, and others mull the tax structures of deals for possible modifications before resuming business as usual.

The mortgages were the first closed under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s pilot program, which is designed to drastically reduce the time it takes HUD to process applications for FHA insurance for new Section 223(f) mortgages for projects utilizing federal low-income housing tax credits.

The Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes tax law changes relating to federal low-income housing, new markets, and energy tax credits. One is to make the new markets tax credit permanent.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board Emerging Issues Task Force has issued for public comment an exposure draft outlining proposed changes to accounting rules that would expand the ability of public companies to utilize the effective yield method of accounting for low-income housing tax credit investments.

Death should always be mourned, the more so when that death is of a loved and valued one which happened slowly, through inattention. So it is with as-of-right zoning, an aspect of development that over roughly three decades has softly and suddenly vanished away, taking with it our control over affordable housing costs and our ability to execute a national housing policy – and raising preservation from afterthought to national imperative.

While I often talk about public policy, one of my primary tasks as Executive Director of NH&RA is to identify new business opportunities for our members. Sometimes these opportunities manifest themselves in new programs enacted by Congress, innovative financing structures, or inefficiencies in the capital markets.

The Mayo 420 Building, a new mixed-used development in downtown Tulsa, Okla., is truly a place where people can live, work, eat – and exercise. The $34.5 million project, funded in part by federal new markets tax credits, contains 67 market-rate apartments, offices, a YMCA, and a restaurant in an historic 10-story building. Wiggin Properties, LLC completed construction in 2010 and achieved full lease-up by August 2011, says company President Chuck Wiggin.

For developer Pioneer Group, Inc., a set of 38 leased historic buildings on the medical campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Leavenworth, Kansas is the gift that keeps on giving. The company is currently developing its third real estate project from the structures.

U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has asked the National Park Service to conduct an internal review of the 20% federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program and report its findings to him by March 1, a step that has sparked positive reactions from some program participants.

The successful operation and performance of a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) project requires choosing the right property management company.

Skilled and vigilant management should keep a property at a healthy occupancy level, assure that it performs well physically and financially, and put investors in a good position to receive the full amount of projected tax benefits.

Your affordable multifamily housing acquisition/ rehab project begins with a vision of an efficient and comfortable building at completion. But after lease-up will you actually achieve the expected high performance in energy and water efficiency designed into the project, and therefore peak financial performance?

General contractors and consultants offer some simple suggestions to developers and owners thinking of retrofitting their existing affordable multifamily rental housing properties to increase energy and water efficiency and thereby reduce utility bills.