There is no unused low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) carryover for a national pool in 2010, announced the Internal Revenue Service.
That means there will be no national pool from which credits can be redistributed to qualified states.
It makes sense that there aren’t any credits left over this year because states have been using the Tax Credit Exchange Program (TCEP) and Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP), said Bryan Keller, partner-in-charge of the Real Estate Services Group at RubinBrown, an accounting and consulting firm that works with developers, syndicators, and banks involved in the LIHTC program.
If one assumes that states were returning 40 percent of their credits through the exchange program, then there’s a smaller amount of credits to start with, he explained.
TCAP and TCEP are programs created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help stalled LIHTC projects.
Typically, any unused housing credit carryover gets placed into a national pot. Qualified states that have allocated all their credits in the year can request to receive additional credits from this pool. Although the pool hasn’t had a lot of money, it does help a number of states fund additional projects.
Last year, there was about $4.5 million in the national pool, which was distributed to 29 states. California received the largest amount, more than $880,000.
Overall, the LIHTC market is seeing prices heading back up, said Keller.
Recent deals in California and New York have received pricing in the 90-cents per dollar of credit range. In the Midwest, prices have been in the mid-70s.
The market is not fully back, but there is a lot more activity than a year ago, said Keller.
