Multi-Family Finance

Love Funding announced the closing of a $13.6 million refinancing loan for Sunset Normandie Towers, a 148-unit Section 8 senior living facility in Los Angeles, California.

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) announced the Conduit Issuer Program, a new program that helps affordable housing developers access tax-exempt and taxable bond funds to aid in the preservation and development of affordable housing projects throughout California.

Affordable Housing Finance released its list of the top affordable housing lenders for 2014. Seventeen NH&RA members were included on the list, with Citi Community Capital in the #1 spot for the sixth year in a row.

Representatives from more than 100 of the nation’s top affordable housing organizations gathered at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, FL, last week for the 2015 NH&RA Annual Meeting. The event’s panel sessions created dialogues on what’s challenging – and exciting – affordable housing developers, illuminated the products and people who will shape the tax credit transactions in upcoming year, offered options to properties approaching year 15, and surveyed key changes to tax credit programs and legislation.

HUD recently released an interim rule to govern the implementation of the Housing Trust Fund, including establishing the regulations that will govern the funds and the formula that will determine how funds are distributed.

On February 2, President Barack Obama introduced his fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget, requesting a total of $49.3 billion for Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs and proposing significant policy changes aimed at improving the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program and a proposal to modify and permanently extend the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.

President Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge welcomed six new multifamily housing authority and owners. AHEAD, Inc (Littleton, NH), Gragg Cardona Partners (Washington, DC), Housing Authority of the Birmingham District (Birmingham, AL), Newark Housing Authority (Newark, NJ), The DeBruler Co. (Libertyville, IL), and Windsor Locks Housing Authority (Windsor Locks, CT) all announced they are joining the Challenge.

U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and California Governor Jerry Brown announced a plan to expand financing for energy efficiency and solar energy in multifamily housing. Their plan includes unlocking property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing for multifamily housing in California, establishing the California Master-Metered Multifamily Finance Pilot Project, and engaging philanthropy and the financial sector in supporting renewable energy in affordable housing.

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Melvin L. Watt instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside and allocating funds for the Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. The funds have sat empty since they were created six years ago due to a temporary suspension.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) is testing a new initiative to fund the renovation and retrofit of an older senior rental property in its portfolio to make it more supportive and user-friendly for the existing elderly residents so that they can better “age in place.”

With just two months remaining, it appears 2014 will turn out to be a banner year for the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market in terms of the total volume of equity raised, even as syndicators are being squeezed on profitability, and yields on multi-investor funds continue to fall.

A key element in the development or acquisition of a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property is the real estate appraisal.