NEWS HEADLINES
NIBP Extended Through 2012
By Jerry Ascierto
The New Issue Bond Program aided
many projects, like USA Properties
Fund’s Vintage Oaks Senior
Apartments. Now the program can
aid even more projects through 2012.
The affordable housing industry can breathe a little easier: The New Issue Bond Program (NIBP) is being extended through 2012, the Treasury Department recently announced.
Throughout 2011, there were rumblings that the program would be extended. Many housing finance agencies (HFAs) found themselves with a surplus of unused single-family NIBP money, and the multifamily industry had been pining to put those funds to work. The recent announcement allows HFAs to do just that.
“This will enable worthy affordable projects to be financed that may otherwise have stalled because of sourcing gaps," said Steven Fayne, managing director of Citi Community Capital. “We are delighted that the NIBP will be revitalized by the carryover of the unused single-family allocation to multifamily and the extension of the program to 2012.”
The program provided a huge shot in the arm for the industry, offering rates as low as 1.8 percent and breathing new life into the bond market. With those kinds of rates, NIBP allowed many deals in high-cost areas such as California and New York to pencil out over the last two years.
In announcing the extension, Treasury made some other changes to the program. For instance, the Treasury is establishing a new rate-setting system for NIBP bonds based on the weighted average life of the bonds being issued. There will also be an additional credit premium of 80 basis points (bps) on new NIBP bonds, and a 30-bp per-year redemption fee on NIBP funds redeemed after April 1, 2012.
Since its creation in 2009, the program has helped HFAs finance more than 100,000 single-family homes and more than 24,000 rental homes, according to the Treasury. The program is now set to sunset Dec. 31, 2012.
For more info, including term sheets, visit http://www.ncsha.org/blog/treasury-announces-nibp-tclp-extensions.
NEW RULES
PROPOSED FOR HOME
The Department of Housing
and Urban Development
(HUD) is proposing new rules
for the embattled HOME
program. HUD’s proposal would:
- Require state and local
governments to adopt
policies and procedures to
improve their oversight of
projects, develop a system
for assessing the relative risk
of projects, and more closely
monitor their HOME-funded
sub-recipients;
- Require state and local
governments to assess a
developer’s capacity and
the long-term viability of the
project, before they commit
HOME funds to a project;
Require more frequent
reporting by state and local “participating jurisdictions” to
enable HUD to more closely
track projects once they’re
under way; and
- Set a higher “performance
bar” by establishing specific
timeframes for taking appropriate
corrective actions
against participating jurisdictions
who fail to complete
what they started.
“There’s more we can do to
boost the program’s performance
and accountability. Through these new steps, we
want to expand HOME’s impact
and ensure that every dollar is
used smartly to help families
afford their homes,” said HUD
Secretary Shaun Donovan in a
statement. |
