Thom Amdur Author Archives

Since HUD Secretary Ben Carson has taken the oath of office, he has spent much of his time on a national listening tour, thus far visiting affordable housing projects and stakeholders in Michigan, Florida and Texas.

Affordable housing developers take on many risks during their day-to-day business. There is construction risk, interest rate risk, headline risk and, as we are experiencing more and more, political risk.

On a cold day last December, I stood on the roof of the Washington, DC building where the Nixon Peabody law firm has its DC headquarters with partners Jeff Lesk and Herb Stevens gazing at the expanse of empty roofs and imagining the possibilities.

It is the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States. As expected, he and the Republican-led 115th Congress are already shaking things up across the board and healthcare reform is front and center.

Despite the extended and rancorous election season we just endured, as I look back over the past 12 months I think our industry had a pretty good year. By and large, owners and developers benefited from historically low interest rates and high tax credit equity pricing. Sellers benefited from low cap-rates, and there continues to be a strong demand for rental properties in most markets.

It will take some time to fully digest the results from this year’s election, but I wanted to share some initial thoughts on what this may mean for our industry.

Housing is generally considered affordable if total housing costs do not exceed 30 percent of an individual’s gross income. This is really more of a programmatic definition than a practical one; it is a helpful measure for setting subsidized rents and utility allowances for low-income families that are lucky enough to live in LIHTC or Section 8 housing.

In a little more than a month, voters (or, at least, that minority of the eligible electorate that actually casts a ballot) will go to the polls and exercise their franchise.

In our June 2016 issue, we dedicated our cover story to the resurgence of tax exempt bonds. In that issue, Bond Attorney and NH&RA Director Wade Norris asked our readers, “Are we on the verge of a volume shortage?” And the answer in an increasing number of states is yes. This has caught many in our industry by surprise; after all, since the financial crisis, the volume cap across the country has been abundant. But if the current trend continues, the non-competitive credit might soon become competitive in a diverse mix of states including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, and perhaps others.

The intersection of housing and healthcare is a fascinating topic that I keep coming back to in this column and in my work with NH&RA.

Multifamily affordable housing developers who work in California have a lot to keep track of right now. Governor Jerry Brown recently acknowledged the state’s housing crisis and laid out solutions to spur development. With 45 million residents and growing, America’s largest state’s four housing agencies are seeing rising demand for their programs and products and reacting with new regulations.

The annual Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalitions “Edson” Awards Luncheon on Capitol Hill is named for LIHTC founding-father, Chuck Edson, honors outstanding examples of affordable housing around the country and in doing so raises the program’s profile amongst key legislators.