Andre Shashaty, Editor
ashashaty@hanleywood.com

Unhappy new year? Affordable housing developers and financiers won’t be throwing any extravagant New Year’s Eve parties this year given the harsh outlook for getting deals done in 2008. Even tax credit syndicators tell me they are tightening their belts, and I believe them. Fannie Mae is saying privately that it will not make any new investments in tax credit partnerships in 2008. And Freddie Mac is believed to be in the same situation, although it is not yet admitting it. Meanwhile, one of the biggest investors among the nation’s banks has cut its community investment staff and merged the remaining experts into its commercial real estate operation. It all points to much lower equity pay-ins in 2008. And if that’s not enough, all sorts of real estate financing providers will still feel the effects of the subprime home mortgage mess for a good part of 2008. Lenders on all types of real estate are being more conservative, cutting loan proceeds, and raising their loan pricing. Even syndicators are affected by the new caution in the credit markets, since banks are also making it harder and more expensive to obtain warehouse lines of credit. What are you seeing in your markets? We would be interested to know.