June 2006 Table of Contents

Featured
Lenders winning FHA MIP battle

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has taken up a fight to keep the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) from damaging one of its most popular financing vehicles for multifamily housing. Read more

HFAs finish first rounds

As 2006 neared the mid-year mark, a number of states had made or were about to make their low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) reservations. Several housing finance agency executives reported solid demand for credits, with requests continuing to outpace Read more

GMACCH sold, renamed Capmark

Detroit GMAC Commercial Holding Corp. (GMACCH), which was recently acquired by an investor group, has changed its name to Capmark Financial Group, Inc. Read more

Trailblazing bond deal Award-winning San Jose transaction offers new way to boost affordable housing development

San Jose, Calif. A $66 million bond deal done last year by the redevelopment agency here may have forged a path other municipalities can use to tap their state volume cap in a new way. Read more

Find out if you need lease-up help

In this issue: Ten steps to guarantee a miserable experience in the first year of the credit period; HUD’s clarification of its new student rule; a reminder about qualifying Hurricane Katrina victims. Read more

Strategies for disposing of Year 15 properties

The first wave of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties to come out of the initial 15-year compliance period hit the industry in 2003.  Read more

Hammering out new housingMississippi apartment owners confront labor shortages, rising wages, slow insurance payments in push to get damaged units livable again

Nine months after losing most of her furniture and clothes when Hurricane Katrina lashed the Mississippi Gulf Coast with 30-foot storm surges and 125-mile-an-hour winds that smashed a tree into her apartment roof, Coral Edelen is working at a new job that Read more

Merger activity among nonprofits enters new phase

Growing political pressure and shrinking public resources are forcing nonprofit housing groups to merge with stronger organizations at a faster pace than ever before. While the move among nonprofit housing development corporations to consolidate is nothin Read more

HDC leads nation in affordable housing bond financing

New York City — Emily Youssouf has upset the usual order of things. Usually, one would expect a city’s bond allocating agency to do considerably less business than a state agency. Read more

IRS memo clarifies LIHTC tax exemptions

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has clarified tax-exemption rules for prospective nonprofit general partners in affordable housing projects that use low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). Read more

Capitol saves the paper

Tax credit financial managers who need to send documents to every lender, lawyer and other party involved in a development already have their hands full doing the rest of their jobs.  Read more

NAHMA survey promotes affordable housing need

Advocates no longer have to pull numbers out of a hat when it comes to convincing community leaders of the need for more affordable housing. Read more

States offering gap financing

Connecticut has committed to create 1,000 units of supportive housing by 2010 under its Next Step Initiative. Read more

Ambitious revitalization effort to reinvent small Vermont city

Winooski, Vt. — A 213-unit mixed-income rental development is at the heart of the new city center emerging in this depressed former mill town. Read more

REGIONAL NEWS

Chicago — In April, Lifelink, a nonprofit health and human services organization, borrowed $50 million from GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. in permanent, fixed-rate financing for a portfolio of 12 seniors housing properties in Illinois. Eight of the proper Read more

Housing agency executives discuss challenges, solutions

Housing finance agencies (HFAs) across the nation are engaged in a balancing act, trying to meet the significant affordable housing needs of their states while working with a limited amount of resources. Read more

Seniors development undergoes seismic overhaul

Torrance, Calif. — A 180-unit seniors community has found a way to overcome age and safety concerns. Read more

Tax credit prices predicted to hold steady

A year ago, the talk of the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) world was rising prices. Read more

The $87 billion question

New Orleans — Bridget Vinson describes her company’s property managers as the stars who have helped her recover after Hurricane Katrina swamped this city in 2005. Read more

Boston project pioneers mixing Sec. 202, tax credits

Boston — Work has begun on one of the first new Sec. 202 projects to be built with low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC). Read more

Baltimore takes on HUD properties

Baltimore Affordable housing advocates are growing increasingly frustrated as old, bankrupt affordable housing properties are auctioned off by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), often to owners that flip the projects to market-rate. Read more

Strong management takes the crime out of crime-ravaged housing

Providence, R.I. — Turning around a troubled project starts with good management, according to John Bentz, president of the Property Advisory Group, Inc. (PAG), based in Providence, R.I. Read more

Combining affordable housing programs – pitfalls and minefields

Development of affordable multifamily housing is a complex proposition in the best of circumstances. Read more

Here’s to new beginnings

When I started this magazine 15 years ago, the housing tax credit was only five years old, and corporate investors still saw it as fairly risky Read more

How QAPs are encouraging supportivehousing Study looks at each state’s tax credit program

Forty-three states have set-aside policies, scoring incentives or threshold requirements for either supportive housing or service-enriched housing in their low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) qualified allocation plans (QAPs). Read more

An anniversary challenge

This year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the low-income housing tax credit. As we do, it’s important we consider how we got here. Read more

Mitchell looks back on LIHTC success

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the low-income housing tax credit program, Affordable Housing Finance interviewed the principal author of the program, former Sen. Read more

Bill introduced in House to preserve rural housing

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House to preserve and revitalize aging Sec. 515 rural rental housing projects, while also allowing owners with pre-1989 loans to prepay their mortgages and convert their projects to market-rate housing. Read more

46,000 seek Sec. 8 vouchers

The demand for housing subsidies became clear in Santa Clara County, Calif., in April when the housing authority accepted applications for its Sec. 8 voucher waiting list for the first time in seven years. Read more

Close X