States allocated $978 million in low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs)—$749.7 million from their annual state ceiling and $228.3 million to bond-financed properties—in 2011, according to a new analysis by the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA).

Overall, these housing credits will help produce 87,918 affordable rental homes around the country.

NCSHA released the findings in its 2011 Factbook, a comprehensive survey of housing finance agency (HFA) program activity.

Other findings include:

  • The use of credits with tax-exempt bonds increased nearly 23 percent from $186 million the prior year. However, HFAs allocated fewer credits from the state ceiling in 2011 than the year before when about $917 million was reserved for affordable housing developments;
  • Demand for LIHTCs continued to outpace the supply, with developers requesting more than $2 billion in LIHTCs, well more than twice the available authority in 2011;
  • State agencies reported that more than half of the units allocated LIHTCs were new construction projects while 35 percent of the bond-financed units allocated credits were new construction;
  • In addition to tax-exempt bond financing, the most prevalent federal subsidies in LIHTC developments in 2011 include project-based Sec. 8 (18.4 percent of the units) and HOME funding (17.6 percent); and
  • Mortgage revenue bond (MRB) issuance increased 13.5 percent during 2011. HFAs issued $8.4 billion in MRBs to raise funds to support first-time homeownership for low- and moderate-income families.

New tables introduced in this year’s book show that HFAs financed 9,415 single-family mortgages with more than $1.2 billion raised from alternative financing sources and supported 29,383 subordinate, or second, loans to help working families buy an affordable home in 2011. Since the LIHTC program began in 1987, state agencies have financed more than 2.6 million affordable rental homes.

The Factbook can be purchased at www.ncsha.org, starting at $50.