Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

In 2012, NH&RA began work on one of the most fulfilling projects of my professional career – the Preservation Through Energy Efficiency (PTEE) Initiative. When we first got the initiative rolling, oil prices had inched back up to near all-time highs, in excess of $120 per barrel and rising utility costs threatened the performance of many multifamily investments.

Private placements, with their higher loan proceeds, additional flexibility and with less complexity than many other affordable housing executions, now make up more than 70 percent of the tax-exempt bond market and volumes are set to grow again this year.

Low-income housing property managers are plowing through a backlog of maintenance work and resuming unit inspections to prepare for the return of in-person inspections by The Real Estate Assessment Center, or REAC, at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June.

Texas is well-known for its fast growth, yet ability to stay affordable. The state has a mostly elastic housing market (of the 50 largest U.S. metros, four of the top 12 in permitting rates are in Texas).

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced last August that it was declaring a nationwide moratorium on all rental evictions, not just those in federally subsidized properties, I instantly thought, That’s unconstitutional. Somebody will sue the government and it’ll get overturned. Sure enough, on May 5, 2021 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (DC for DC) did just that, and a good thing too, because well-met laws intended to offer short-term relief frequently do long-term damage – as I know from personal experience.

Teachers will be returning to Washington, DC’s Malcolm X Elementary School, which closed in 2013. The city is renovating the old school to put in place a permanent home for an “early college” high school. But now they will also have the chance to live adjacent to the new school in a new development, as part of a District initiative to boost housing for educators.

Extensive consultation with the residents of Washington, DC’s Ward 7 gave city officials and developers a clear sense of how local folk would like to see a vacant old school in the Marshall Heights section redeveloped. The residents wanted housing. Lots of it, rentals and homeownership units, housing for seniors, affordable, workforce, market rate. They wanted commercial properties, retail. Perhaps most of all, they wanted a grocery store for a neighborhood that currently doesn’t have one.

Odd as it sounds given the events, the U.S. property market had a banner year in 2020, and its upward streak continues. The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures single-family home prices, is up 12 percent since February 2020.

Asset managing can be challenging in the best of times but add a global pandemic to the equation and companies have had to reevaluate best practices to ensure peak property performance.

Regular readers of this column know I’m a native of Maine, the “Pine Tree State.” As the nickname implies, it’s a place that has more forests than urban and suburban areas. All those trees have helped power Maine’s economic engine in the form of paper, logging and lumber mills. And remember that shortage of swabs for COVID-19 tests last year? Yep, lots of those wooden sticks with a cotton ball on the tip are manufactured in Maine.

It has been a momentous few months for the affordable housing community. After a bumpy presidential transition, there has been a flurry of positive activity from the Biden administration and 117th Congress. The enactment of American Rescue Plan of 2021 provides much-needed financial support for affordable housing renters at a critical moment. Our champions in Congress have reintroduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act with expanded scopes that would dramatically enhance and expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit if enacted.

A troubling spike in lumber prices may not break until later this year, as a badly out-of-whack supply and demand equation continues to roil the construction industry.