Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Developers of Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects are used to the concept of complicated capital stacks for their deals.

Names can outlive their purpose and their original meaning. Though the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, a cluster of mutually distrustful principalities with a largely symbolic head of state known as the Holy Roman Emperor maneuvered under that rubric for a thousand years after its 800 AD founding by Charlemagne before it was put to sleep by the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Such may yet be the fate of two venerable concepts, Fair Market Rent (FMR) and the Area Median Income (AMI). 

A U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently granted an injunction to extend the Community Reinvestment Act final rule’s effective date, April 1, along with all other implementation dates. Here’s what you need to know about the case and how it will impact LIHTC investment.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting impacts on the economy and financial markets, as well as the Federal Reserve’s raising of short-term rates to stave off inflation, interest rates and construction costs have risen dramatically, resulting in funding gaps that many multifamily affordable housing developers in the four percent LIHTC space have had difficulty filling.

Government agencies are still racing to get their Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds out the door, and they remain open to input from various stakeholders to help guide this process.

Given the housing challenges facing much of the nation, there are many communities, regions and even states around the country that are having Housing Needs Assessments (HNA) completed.

Office vacancies throughout the nation have reached a 30-year high and the country is amid an affordable housing crisis. These dual inflection points have increased housing advocates’ focus on conversions of commercial real estate into housing and encouraged federal and local governments to assist in the transformations.

A new land banking program in Colorado aims to help developers purchase land for affordable housing, solving the unique problem of not having tax credits to purchase land, as well as creating access to development in rural areas. 

Minnesotans hoping to bolster the state’s affordable housing stock may donate to affordable housing projects, requesting to have their donation allocated to a specific project or a general affordable housing fund and receive a tax credit of 85 percent of their donation through a new state program.

For much of the past 14 years, Will Eckstein has led the team responsible for securing new affordable housing development opportunities at Greystone Affordable Development,. Tax Credit Advisor sat down with Eckstein to learn more about HHAD and his priorities for the balance of 2024. 

Government programs typically do not consider or emphasize strategic and meaningful leveraging and collaboration with other programs, much less provide valuable guidance to do so.

The California city of Santa Barbara is an affluent place. Oprah Winfrey lives there. President Reagan had his ranch there. But its commercial district was starting to look ragged post-pandemic, with stores going out of business due to online competition from Amazon and others.