Multi-Family Finance

An Unnumbered Letter from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development (RD) provides guidance and instructs USDA staff on reconciling procedural differences between the Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing and Section 515 Rural Rental Housing Loan programs.

We invite you to take a short break from your year end closings and join more than 150 of the leading developers and affordable housing professionals from around the country at our 2012 Fall Developers Forum at the Langham Hotel. The Developers Forum is the last NH&RA conference of the year!

HUD recently issued an updated draft Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Pilot Program Application Processing Guide. This informal guide is meant for lenders and HUD staff to use while underwriting loans for the Pilot Program, which aims to streamline FHA processing of mortgage insurance applications for projects with LIHTC equity.

On November 13 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick outlined a bold new plan to produce 10,000 new multifamily housing units a year through 2020.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report entitled “Mortgage Financing: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Multifamily Housing Activities Have Increased,” which examines the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played in providing financing for multifamily properties with five or more units.

California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed several bills into law, all of which will have a significant impact on the multifamily housing development industry. The Southern California Association of Nonprofit Developers (SCANPH) estimates that these approved measures could provide up to $80 million in funding for housing-related development.

HUD has issued a Notice of Intent to conduct an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing program in the Baltimore, Maryland Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA). The Agency will make available certain incentives to developers in order to encourage the production and availability of more affordable housing units in “communities of opportunity,” as defined in the Thompson vs. HUD settlement, in the Baltimore SMSA.

HUD has opened the competitive application period for conversions under the first component of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed by a vote of 402-7 the FHA Emergency Fiscal Solvency Act of 2012 (HR 4264), a measure which would help shore up the fiscal solvency of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) mortgage insurance programs. The bill, introduced by Judy Biggert (R-IL), Chair of the House Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee, places a minimum on annual FHA mortgage insurance premiums and enhances FHA risk and enforcement measures to protect against fraud and abuse, among other provisions.

NCHMA is pleased to present the conference materials including Power Point presentations relevant articles, reports, memos, etc. from our recent Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL September 6-7 at the Conrad Hotel.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced several updates for its multifamily housing development programs.

We are pleased to welcome Pat Costigan, Special Adviser to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as the keynote speaker at this year’s National Council of Real Estate Market Analysts Annual Meeting, September 6-7 at the Conrad Hotel in Chicago.