Note: The Top 25 rankings reflect only those companies that provided Affordable Housing Finance with figures. If you’d like to be considered for next year’s rankings, please contact Christine Serlin at [email protected].
Lending Volume Up in 2024
Despite these difficulties many lenders lent more in 2024 to affordable housing properties.
Affordable Housing Finance’s Top 25 affordable housing lenders provided $60.1 billion in permanent and construction loans in 2024 to developments that serve households up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). That’s an increase from the more than $55.7 billion in loans provided by 2023’s top lender list.
Citi Community Capital retained its spot at the top of the list. It lent just over $7 billion to affordable housing properties last year, just slightly above the nearly $6.5 billion in 2023.
Because of today’s uncertainties, Citi forecasts it will lend just $6 billion to affordable housing properties this year. However, if federal funding levels stabilize, Citi could easily beat that conservative forecast and build on the amount it lent in 2024, Johnson notes.
Citi is also confident that the forecast will not sink lower than $6 billion for 2025. A portion of those loans are conversions of construction loans to permanent financing for projects that have already fixed their sources and uses of funds.
Volunteers of America National Services
Boston Capital Finance is providing financing to Volunteers of America National Services for the rehabilitation of Silver Lakes Village Apartments in Orlando, Florida.
Lenders Stretch to Close Complicated Deals
Lenders were active last year helping developers solve complicated finance puzzles.
For example, in April 2024, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, a national affordable housing developer, partnered with Fitch Irick Corp. and its affiliates to close a $107 million transaction to refinance and renovate a portfolio of 649 affordable housing units spread over 19 properties in 14 counties in North Carolina.
Greystone provided $37 million in long-term Fannie Mae financing to the portfolio.
“That was pretty characteristic of the deals that we closed in 2024,” says Jackson. “We had to be creative to help borrowers overcome the challenges.”
The 17-month renovation will spend about $56,000 per unit to fix up the properties, originally built decades ago under Rural Development’s Section 515 program.
There is no way that the individual properties—averaging just 34 units each—could have been recapitalized one at a time. The combined financing includes tax-exempt bonds, 4% LIHTCs, and a Fannie Mae mortgage. Closing the deal required Rural Development and Fannie Mae to make subordination agreements and HUD to agree to raise rents to market levels to support the transaction.
KITE Architects
Bank of America is helping Crossroads Rhode Island finance the 176-unit Summer Street development in Providence.
Developers Fill Budget Gaps With Soft Financing
When the cost of developing affordable housing rises unexpectedly, developers need to find more and more sources of grants and soft financing to fill the gaps in their project budgets.
“We’re seeing more and more developers are having to go back to municipalities and secure additional soft funding for transactions,” says Boston Capital Finance’s Curry.
Developers are also planning to layer more financing sources into their affordable housing projects. For example, developer Crossroads Rhode Island, based in Providence, Rhode Island, assembled up to 20 different sources of funding to build Summer Street, a 176-unit permanent supportive housing community. This included financing from the state, Rhode Island Housing, and the city of Providence.
“This could be a near record for the number of funding sources,” says Barry.
Bank of America Community Development Banking provided a construction loan in mid-2024 and invested in tax credits for the $83.5 million project. Grants, soft financing, and a partially deferred developer fee provided much of the rest of the financing, including a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Grant and funds from the Providence Housing Trust Fund, the Rhode Island Housing Rebounds Fund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
State and local governments are also creating housing programs to finance new affordable housing developments.
For example, in March, DelWest Development Corp. closed its construction financing to build 120 new townhomes at The Vista at Greyhound Park. The financing package includes a soft loan from Colorado’s new State Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created through the Proposition 123 ballot initiative and passed by voters in the 2022 election. The project also received a tax abatement from the Commerce City Housing Authority.
“Without those dollars being set aside, the deal would not be taking place,” says Kamara Green, executive vice president and national director of affordable production for BWE.
KNTXT
J.P. Morgan is providing financing to the Roers Cos. for the development of the 200-unit Allers Landing community in Austin, Texas.
Workforce Housing Developments Find Financing
Despite an uncertain market, many lenders expanded their efforts in 2024 to finance new workforce housing developments affordable to people who earn too much to live in apartments subsidized by LIHTCs but are still burdened by the high cost of housing.
“It’s your schoolteachers. It’s your nurses,” says Vince Toye, managing director and head of community development banking at J.P. Morgan. “Everybody needs a clean and affordable place to live.”
J.P. Morgan created its Workforce Housing Solutions group to finance projects like this. It closed its first construction loan in December 2023 to finance a new community built with modular housing, now scheduled to open this summer in Los Angeles.
In June 2024, Roers Cos., a national multifamily real estate investment firm, closed the financing to develop 200 new apartments at Allers Landing in Austin, Texas.
J.P. Morgan provided a $29.2 million construction loan to help build Allers Landing. The $55.9 million project will include 110 workforce housing apartments reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income.
Developers are finding new ways finance the construction of workforce housing.
Employers ranging from Amazon to hospital systems have created their own workforce housing programs. Some offer low-cost loans to cover predevelopment costs. Others contribute land or other financing. A growing number of local jurisdictions also offer property tax abatements to workforce housing projects, says Toye.
Source: 2024 Lenders Survey, March 2025. Totals include permanent and construction loans for properties at incomes up to 80% of the area median income.
Note: The Top 25 rankings reflect only those companies that provided Affordable Housing Finance with figures. If you’d like to be considered for next year’s rankings, please contact Christine Serlin at [email protected].
Lending Volume Up in 2024
Despite these difficulties many lenders lent more in 2024 to affordable housing properties.
Affordable Housing Finance’s Top 25 affordable housing lenders provided $60.1 billion in permanent and construction loans in 2024 to developments that serve households up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). That’s an increase from the more than $55.7 billion in loans provided by 2023’s top lender list.
Citi Community Capital retained its spot at the top of the list. It lent just over $7 billion to affordable housing properties last year, just slightly above the nearly $6.5 billion in 2023.
Because of today’s uncertainties, Citi forecasts it will lend just $6 billion to affordable housing properties this year. However, if federal funding levels stabilize, Citi could easily beat that conservative forecast and build on the amount it lent in 2024, Johnson notes.
Citi is also confident that the forecast will not sink lower than $6 billion for 2025. A portion of those loans are conversions of construction loans to permanent financing for projects that have already fixed their sources and uses of funds.
Lenders Stretch to Close Complicated Deals
Lenders were active last year helping developers solve complicated finance puzzles.
For example, in April 2024, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, a national affordable housing developer, partnered with Fitch Irick Corp. and its affiliates to close a $107 million transaction to refinance and renovate a portfolio of 649 affordable housing units spread over 19 properties in 14 counties in North Carolina.
Greystone provided $37 million in long-term Fannie Mae financing to the portfolio.
“That was pretty characteristic of the deals that we closed in 2024,” says Jackson. “We had to be creative to help borrowers overcome the challenges.”
The 17-month renovation will spend about $56,000 per unit to fix up the properties, originally built decades ago under Rural Development’s Section 515 program.
There is no way that the individual properties—averaging just 34 units each—could have been recapitalized one at a time. The combined financing includes tax-exempt bonds, 4% LIHTCs, and a Fannie Mae mortgage. Closing the deal required Rural Development and Fannie Mae to make subordination agreements and HUD to agree to raise rents to market levels to support the transaction.
Developers Fill Budget Gaps With Soft Financing
When the cost of developing affordable housing rises unexpectedly, developers need to find more and more sources of grants and soft financing to fill the gaps in their project budgets.
“We’re seeing more and more developers are having to go back to municipalities and secure additional soft funding for transactions,” says Boston Capital Finance’s Curry.
Developers are also planning to layer more financing sources into their affordable housing projects. For example, developer Crossroads Rhode Island, based in Providence, Rhode Island, assembled up to 20 different sources of funding to build Summer Street, a 176-unit permanent supportive housing community. This included financing from the state, Rhode Island Housing, and the city of Providence.
“This could be a near record for the number of funding sources,” says Barry.
Bank of America Community Development Banking provided a construction loan in mid-2024 and invested in tax credits for the $83.5 million project. Grants, soft financing, and a partially deferred developer fee provided much of the rest of the financing, including a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Grant and funds from the Providence Housing Trust Fund, the Rhode Island Housing Rebounds Fund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
State and local governments are also creating housing programs to finance new affordable housing developments.
For example, in March, DelWest Development Corp. closed its construction financing to build 120 new townhomes at The Vista at Greyhound Park. The financing package includes a soft loan from Colorado’s new State Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created through the Proposition 123 ballot initiative and passed by voters in the 2022 election. The project also received a tax abatement from the Commerce City Housing Authority.
“Without those dollars being set aside, the deal would not be taking place,” says Kamara Green, executive vice president and national director of affordable production for BWE.
Workforce Housing Developments Find Financing
Despite an uncertain market, many lenders expanded their efforts in 2024 to finance new workforce housing developments affordable to people who earn too much to live in apartments subsidized by LIHTCs but are still burdened by the high cost of housing.
“It’s your schoolteachers. It’s your nurses,” says Vince Toye, managing director and head of community development banking at J.P. Morgan. “Everybody needs a clean and affordable place to live.”
J.P. Morgan created its Workforce Housing Solutions group to finance projects like this. It closed its first construction loan in December 2023 to finance a new community built with modular housing, now scheduled to open this summer in Los Angeles.
In June 2024, Roers Cos., a national multifamily real estate investment firm, closed the financing to develop 200 new apartments at Allers Landing in Austin, Texas.
J.P. Morgan provided a $29.2 million construction loan to help build Allers Landing. The $55.9 million project will include 110 workforce housing apartments reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income.
Developers are finding new ways finance the construction of workforce housing.
Employers ranging from Amazon to hospital systems have created their own workforce housing programs. Some offer low-cost loans to cover predevelopment costs. Others contribute land or other financing. A growing number of local jurisdictions also offer property tax abatements to workforce housing projects, says Toye.
Source: 2024 Lenders Survey, March 2025. Totals include permanent and construction loans for properties at incomes up to 80% of the area median income.
Note: The Top 25 rankings reflect only those companies that provided Affordable Housing Finance with figures. If you’d like to be considered for next year’s rankings, please contact Christine Serlin at [email protected].
Lending Volume Up in 2024
Despite these difficulties many lenders lent more in 2024 to affordable housing properties.
Affordable Housing Finance’s Top 25 affordable housing lenders provided $60.1 billion in permanent and construction loans in 2024 to developments that serve households up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). That’s an increase from the more than $55.7 billion in loans provided by 2023’s top lender list.
Citi Community Capital retained its spot at the top of the list. It lent just over $7 billion to affordable housing properties last year, just slightly above the nearly $6.5 billion in 2023.
Because of today’s uncertainties, Citi forecasts it will lend just $6 billion to affordable housing properties this year. However, if federal funding levels stabilize, Citi could easily beat that conservative forecast and build on the amount it lent in 2024, Johnson notes.
Citi is also confident that the forecast will not sink lower than $6 billion for 2025. A portion of those loans are conversions of construction loans to permanent financing for projects that have already fixed their sources and uses of funds.
Lenders Stretch to Close Complicated Deals
Lenders were active last year helping developers solve complicated finance puzzles.
For example, in April 2024, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, a national affordable housing developer, partnered with Fitch Irick Corp. and its affiliates to close a $107 million transaction to refinance and renovate a portfolio of 649 affordable housing units spread over 19 properties in 14 counties in North Carolina.
Greystone provided $37 million in long-term Fannie Mae financing to the portfolio.
“That was pretty characteristic of the deals that we closed in 2024,” says Jackson. “We had to be creative to help borrowers overcome the challenges.”
The 17-month renovation will spend about $56,000 per unit to fix up the properties, originally built decades ago under Rural Development’s Section 515 program.
There is no way that the individual properties—averaging just 34 units each—could have been recapitalized one at a time. The combined financing includes tax-exempt bonds, 4% LIHTCs, and a Fannie Mae mortgage. Closing the deal required Rural Development and Fannie Mae to make subordination agreements and HUD to agree to raise rents to market levels to support the transaction.
Developers Fill Budget Gaps With Soft Financing
When the cost of developing affordable housing rises unexpectedly, developers need to find more and more sources of grants and soft financing to fill the gaps in their project budgets.
“We’re seeing more and more developers are having to go back to municipalities and secure additional soft funding for transactions,” says Boston Capital Finance’s Curry.
Developers are also planning to layer more financing sources into their affordable housing projects. For example, developer Crossroads Rhode Island, based in Providence, Rhode Island, assembled up to 20 different sources of funding to build Summer Street, a 176-unit permanent supportive housing community. This included financing from the state, Rhode Island Housing, and the city of Providence.
“This could be a near record for the number of funding sources,” says Barry.
Bank of America Community Development Banking provided a construction loan in mid-2024 and invested in tax credits for the $83.5 million project. Grants, soft financing, and a partially deferred developer fee provided much of the rest of the financing, including a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Grant and funds from the Providence Housing Trust Fund, the Rhode Island Housing Rebounds Fund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
State and local governments are also creating housing programs to finance new affordable housing developments.
For example, in March, DelWest Development Corp. closed its construction financing to build 120 new townhomes at The Vista at Greyhound Park. The financing package includes a soft loan from Colorado’s new State Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created through the Proposition 123 ballot initiative and passed by voters in the 2022 election. The project also received a tax abatement from the Commerce City Housing Authority.
“Without those dollars being set aside, the deal would not be taking place,” says Kamara Green, executive vice president and national director of affordable production for BWE.
Workforce Housing Developments Find Financing
Despite an uncertain market, many lenders expanded their efforts in 2024 to finance new workforce housing developments affordable to people who earn too much to live in apartments subsidized by LIHTCs but are still burdened by the high cost of housing.
“It’s your schoolteachers. It’s your nurses,” says Vince Toye, managing director and head of community development banking at J.P. Morgan. “Everybody needs a clean and affordable place to live.”
J.P. Morgan created its Workforce Housing Solutions group to finance projects like this. It closed its first construction loan in December 2023 to finance a new community built with modular housing, now scheduled to open this summer in Los Angeles.
In June 2024, Roers Cos., a national multifamily real estate investment firm, closed the financing to develop 200 new apartments at Allers Landing in Austin, Texas.
J.P. Morgan provided a $29.2 million construction loan to help build Allers Landing. The $55.9 million project will include 110 workforce housing apartments reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income.
Developers are finding new ways finance the construction of workforce housing.
Employers ranging from Amazon to hospital systems have created their own workforce housing programs. Some offer low-cost loans to cover predevelopment costs. Others contribute land or other financing. A growing number of local jurisdictions also offer property tax abatements to workforce housing projects, says Toye.
Top lenders are planning to close billions of dollars in financing to affordable housing properties in 2025.
However, interest rates, construction costs, low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) pricing, and even federal policy have become more unpredictable.
Developers and lenders are determined to carry on anyway, structuring new deals to finance developments to create and preserve affordable housing properties.
“There’s a great need in our country for affordable housing, and the great folks that run these cities and states are working creatively with sponsors,” says Sean Curry, partner and director of investments and originations for Boston Capital Finance.
Uncertain Outlook for Development Costs
Affordable housing developers scrambled in 2024 to find new sources of financing as their projects got more and more expensive to build.
“Total development costs have risen dramatically,” says Barry Krinsky, national production manager for Citi Community Capital. The rising costs of construction and financing contributed to the increasing size of the average multifamily loan made by top lenders like Citi in 2024 compared with 2023.
“The cost per unit to build housing has increased, so the deals have gotten much larger,” Krinsky says. “I wish there were more units.”
Many developers and lenders to affordable housing projects expected construction costs to increase more slowly in 2025. But by April, many were already feeling the effects of announced tariffs ranging from 10% to more than 50% on goods from countries around the world.
“General contractors are trying to price in ahead of time what they believe that impact will be, and that is having an outsized impact on the ability to build new housing,” says Pharrah Jackson, vice president with the dedicated affordable housing platform at Greystone.
Interest rates also remain high and unpredictable.
“There is a lot of volatility in the interest rate market. Where things were working on Monday, by Thursday the deals no longer worked,” notes Sarah Meads, managing director with Greystone.
Since the beginning of 2025, the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds has been as high as 4.8% and as low as 3.8%. That’s already outside of the range of forecasts shared by many top lenders in mid-March.
Federal Reserve officials had also begun to trim their benchmark, short-term interest rate in late 2024 and were anticipated to cut rates more in 2025—but that expectation was also broken.
“Given the resilience of the labor market and sticky inflation, we now think the Fed cutting cycle is over for now,” says Maria Barry, managing director and Community Development Banking national executive for Bank of America.
The prices that investors are willing to pay for federal LIHTCs are also uncertain.
“Tax credit pricing is among the lowest that my developers have seen ever, which means they have bigger gaps to fill,” notes Jackson.
Competition from new energy tax credits cut into demand for LIHTCs from investors in 2024. A proposal in Congress to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% could reduce demand for LIHTCs even more. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 had already reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
“A lot of the tax credit investors are waiting to see where tax reform is going to go,” says Jackson.
Other programs have been threatened by unexpected changes in federal housing policy. For example, in March, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made moves to halt the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program.
There is a pipeline of deals that were depending on those dollars, according to multiple experts interviewed for this story. At this point, lenders don’t have surety as to whether or not those dollars are going to be available.
That has put plans to acquire and rehab affordable housing properties at risk.
“I work with two borrowers that have put multiple deals to the side,” says Greystone’s Jackson. These affordable housing projects were in the predevelopment phase but had not yet taken out construction loans. “They were expecting these funds they thought were committed into the deals that have now disappeared. … They’re trying to find other methods to fill very large gaps in their sources of funding.”
Funds already committed from other HUD programs like HOME or the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) do not appear to be threatened. “Any funds that have been committed through those sources, we have ultimate confidence that’s going to get funded,” Krinsky adds.
In addition, lenders like Citi are confident in operating subsidies from project-based Section 8 contracts. “We still very much look at properties that have project-based Section 8 as being a credit positive,” says Jeremy Johnson, managing director and head of Citi Community Capital. “We don’t have any concerns around underwriting Section 8, even today.”
However, future rounds of HOME and CDBG funding could also be reduced by congressional budget cuts. “There are a lot of federal dollars right now that are in question … whether money for new grants and new soft sources are going to be available,” Johnson adds.
Top 25 Affordable Housing Lenders of 2024
| Company | 2024 ($ in millions) | 2023 ($ in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Citi Community Capital | 7,026.3 | 6,497.5 |
| 2. KeyBank Real Estate Capital | 6,287.0 | 6,067.0 |
| 3. Bank of America | 5,088.0 | 4,491.0 |
| 4. Merchants Capital | 4,168.7 | 4,094.9 |
| 5. J.P. Morgan | 4,010.0 | 4,100.0 |
| 6. Wells Fargo | 3,398.6 | N/A |
| 7. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. | 3,226.4 | 2,030.2 |
| 8. Berkadia | 2,853.6 | 2,882.0 |
| 9. JLL Capital Markets | 2,160.0 | 1,900.0 |
| 10. PNC Real Estate | 1,989.8 | 716.4 |
| 11. NewPoint Real Estate Capital | 1,967.3 | 1,308.5 |
| 12. Lument | 1,901.1 | 1,888.0 |
| 13. RBC Capital Markets | 1,882.0 | N/A |
| 14. TD Bank | 1,694.5 | 1,722.1 |
| 15. U.S. Bank | 1,660.0 | 1,910.0 |
| 16. Walker & Dunlop | 1,491.6 | 1,597.2 |
| 17. Deutsche Bank Securities | 1,411.1 | 1,641.4 |
| 18. CBRE Capital Markets | 1,300.0 | 976.0 |
| 19. Greystone Servicing Corp. | 1,285.4 | 1,701.3 |
| 20. R4 Capital | 1,080.1 | 822.8 |
| 21. Capital One | 1,071.0 | 1,765.0 |
| 22. M&T Realty Capital Corp. | 1,022.3 | N/A |
| 23. BWE | 965.4 | 926.3 |
| 24. Boston Capital Finance | 668.0 | 415.0 |
| 25. Legacy Bank & Trust | 529.5 | 406.0 |
Source: 2024 Lenders Survey, March 2025. Totals include permanent and construction loans for properties at incomes up to 80% of the area median income.
Note: The Top 25 rankings reflect only those companies that provided Affordable Housing Finance with figures. If you’d like to be considered for next year’s rankings, please contact Christine Serlin at [email protected].
Lending Volume Up in 2024
Despite these difficulties many lenders lent more in 2024 to affordable housing properties.
Affordable Housing Finance’s Top 25 affordable housing lenders provided $60.1 billion in permanent and construction loans in 2024 to developments that serve households up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). That’s an increase from the more than $55.7 billion in loans provided by 2023’s top lender list.
Citi Community Capital retained its spot at the top of the list. It lent just over $7 billion to affordable housing properties last year, just slightly above the nearly $6.5 billion in 2023.
Because of today’s uncertainties, Citi forecasts it will lend just $6 billion to affordable housing properties this year. However, if federal funding levels stabilize, Citi could easily beat that conservative forecast and build on the amount it lent in 2024, Johnson notes.
Citi is also confident that the forecast will not sink lower than $6 billion for 2025. A portion of those loans are conversions of construction loans to permanent financing for projects that have already fixed their sources and uses of funds.
Lenders Stretch to Close Complicated Deals
Lenders were active last year helping developers solve complicated finance puzzles.
For example, in April 2024, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, a national affordable housing developer, partnered with Fitch Irick Corp. and its affiliates to close a $107 million transaction to refinance and renovate a portfolio of 649 affordable housing units spread over 19 properties in 14 counties in North Carolina.
Greystone provided $37 million in long-term Fannie Mae financing to the portfolio.
“That was pretty characteristic of the deals that we closed in 2024,” says Jackson. “We had to be creative to help borrowers overcome the challenges.”
The 17-month renovation will spend about $56,000 per unit to fix up the properties, originally built decades ago under Rural Development’s Section 515 program.
There is no way that the individual properties—averaging just 34 units each—could have been recapitalized one at a time. The combined financing includes tax-exempt bonds, 4% LIHTCs, and a Fannie Mae mortgage. Closing the deal required Rural Development and Fannie Mae to make subordination agreements and HUD to agree to raise rents to market levels to support the transaction.
Developers Fill Budget Gaps With Soft Financing
When the cost of developing affordable housing rises unexpectedly, developers need to find more and more sources of grants and soft financing to fill the gaps in their project budgets.
“We’re seeing more and more developers are having to go back to municipalities and secure additional soft funding for transactions,” says Boston Capital Finance’s Curry.
Developers are also planning to layer more financing sources into their affordable housing projects. For example, developer Crossroads Rhode Island, based in Providence, Rhode Island, assembled up to 20 different sources of funding to build Summer Street, a 176-unit permanent supportive housing community. This included financing from the state, Rhode Island Housing, and the city of Providence.
“This could be a near record for the number of funding sources,” says Barry.
Bank of America Community Development Banking provided a construction loan in mid-2024 and invested in tax credits for the $83.5 million project. Grants, soft financing, and a partially deferred developer fee provided much of the rest of the financing, including a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Grant and funds from the Providence Housing Trust Fund, the Rhode Island Housing Rebounds Fund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
State and local governments are also creating housing programs to finance new affordable housing developments.
For example, in March, DelWest Development Corp. closed its construction financing to build 120 new townhomes at The Vista at Greyhound Park. The financing package includes a soft loan from Colorado’s new State Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created through the Proposition 123 ballot initiative and passed by voters in the 2022 election. The project also received a tax abatement from the Commerce City Housing Authority.
“Without those dollars being set aside, the deal would not be taking place,” says Kamara Green, executive vice president and national director of affordable production for BWE.
Workforce Housing Developments Find Financing
Despite an uncertain market, many lenders expanded their efforts in 2024 to finance new workforce housing developments affordable to people who earn too much to live in apartments subsidized by LIHTCs but are still burdened by the high cost of housing.
“It’s your schoolteachers. It’s your nurses,” says Vince Toye, managing director and head of community development banking at J.P. Morgan. “Everybody needs a clean and affordable place to live.”
J.P. Morgan created its Workforce Housing Solutions group to finance projects like this. It closed its first construction loan in December 2023 to finance a new community built with modular housing, now scheduled to open this summer in Los Angeles.
In June 2024, Roers Cos., a national multifamily real estate investment firm, closed the financing to develop 200 new apartments at Allers Landing in Austin, Texas.
J.P. Morgan provided a $29.2 million construction loan to help build Allers Landing. The $55.9 million project will include 110 workforce housing apartments reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income.
Developers are finding new ways finance the construction of workforce housing.
Employers ranging from Amazon to hospital systems have created their own workforce housing programs. Some offer low-cost loans to cover predevelopment costs. Others contribute land or other financing. A growing number of local jurisdictions also offer property tax abatements to workforce housing projects, says Toye.
