News

The Internal Revenue Services submitted regulatory guidance for the Qualified Opportunity Zone Program to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the White House Office Management of the Budget (OMB) on Wednesday September 12.  This proposed rule is expected to clarify several issues relating to the incentive.  The specifics of the proposed regulatory […]

The Council of Development Finance Agencies has issued a new report titled, “CDFA Opportunity Zones Report: State of the States.” Recognizing that Opportunity Zones have the potential to be a transformative economic development tool in distressed areas around the country, CDFA members are actively developing Opportunity Zones strategies to attract investment, identify additional development finance […]

City NIMBYs, a new article authored by NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Vicki Been, explores the growing trend of opposition to development in cities. It describes the academic discussions of this trend to date, reviews the known impact of opposition and regulatory barriers to development, and proposes factors that may explain the growing opposition to […]

The NYU Furman Center will host a free webinar, on Tuesday September 25th at 12:00 p.m. ET, on the State of New York City’s Subsidized Housing in 2017. The webinar will review major programs used to develop and preserve affordable housing in the city, and provide the number and location of properties benefiting from a subsidy […]

On September 6, the tenth anniversary of the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, retiring House Financial Services Committee chair Jim Hensarling (R-TX) released a discussion draft for the Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act. The measure is co-sponsored by Reps. John Delaney (D-MD) and Jim Himes (D-NY) and would eliminate Fannie Mae […]

On Monday, Sept. 10, House Ways & Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced a three bill follow-up to the  Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These bills constitute Republicans’ Tax Reform 2.0 package and primarily lock in individual and small business tax cuts made in the legislation passed in December 2017, and reform savings- and education-related tax provisions.  […]

Novogradac & Company has released two online mapping tools that track tax codes of individual states and how they conform to federal tax law concerning the opportunity zones incentive. One tool tracks state law concerning personal income and the other tracks state law concerning corporate income. Both resources also link to relevant state tax code […]

On September 7, the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) has released a much anticipated the report by Abt Associates entitled “Variation in Development Costs for LIHTC Projects.”

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development issued an Audit Report on August 31, 2018 entitled “REAC Could Improve Its Inspections Processes and Controls.”  The objective of the auduit was to determine whether REAC had adequate processes for and controls over the certification and monitoring of contracted […]

HUD has announced that Tony Ramirez, a 20-year HUD veteran who has served the past 14 years as director of HUD’s Reno, Nevada field office, will serve as the new Oregon Field Office Director.

On Thursday, September 6, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing entitled “A Failure to Act: How a Decade without GSE Reform Has Once Again Put Taxpayers at Risk.” This fall marks ten years since the height of the financial […]

On September 6, the housing and Insurance Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to examine how the costs of regulation are forming a barrier that prevents more affordable housing development. “The lack of development is especially concerning,” said subcommittee chair Sean Duffy (R-WI), “because while we continue to enjoy some of […]