The price of terms
By Caitlin Jones
1 min read
Tax Credit Advisor, May 2011:
“You tell me the price, and I’ll tell you the terms.”
– Negotiating posture adopted by a wise old developer
What’s the price?
Ask anyone in the LIHTC world how good a deal they made on their last transaction, and the answer always begins with one simple number: the equity price, measured in cents per dollar of LIHTC. It’s the universal cocktail-reception metric, the opening question to industry-expert panelists, the way we keep score and show we’re in the know: What’s the price?
Prices are quick to say, easy numbers to grasp, instant comparatives that give us the illusion of understanding the marketplace. None of us can perceive “the market” as a totality, so we collect these pointillist bits of data, and from them deduce the market’s structure.
