Glenn Petherick • 5 min read
An energy audit, an assessment of the energy needs and efficiency of a building or group of buildings, can be informative for an affordable multifamily rental housing development as well as provide a roadmap for the most cost-effective improvements to make.
Glenn Petherick • 5 min read
A demonstration project making major energy and water efficiency improvements at a 274-unit affordable multifamily rental housing development in southern California is a possible model for other similar “stand-alone” green retrofit jobs.
Glenn Petherick • 7 min read
In North Easton, Mass., 30 miles south of Boston, Beacon Communities LLC has created a unique mixed-income apartment community through the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of eight historic buildings dating between 1852 and 1928 that were once part of the Ames Shovel Works factory complex.
Glenn Petherick • 6 min read
Water conservation improvements are generally the least expensive and most cost-effective retrofit improvements that owners can make at their existing affordable multifamily rental housing properties to cut utility usage and costs, according to sources. Moreover, sometimes improvements can be funded with no upfront cost to owners.
Brian Carnahan • 6 min read
In March 2013, the Housing Partnership Network released a set of proposed affordable housing reforms that included a recommendation to “create a rating system for affordable housing providers.”
Glenn Petherick • 7 min read
On Forbes Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, just blocks from where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers join to form the Ohio, a Western Pennsylvania company is developing a nearly $105 million mixed-use real estate project that will further revitalize the city’s central business and retail district as a vibrant place to live, work, and play.
Thomas Amdur • 3 min read
Recently I was speaking with a prominent California-based developer about potential topics for NH&RA’s annual West Coast jaunt – the Spring Developers Forum, to be held this year on May 19-20 in Marina del Rey, Calif.
Glenn Petherick • 4 min read
Indiana’s state housing finance agency is taking action to develop an online calculator for generating more accurate utility allowances for rental units in more energy- and water-efficient multifamily housing projects.
Glenn Petherick • 3 min read
We’ve all seen the photos – of the gleaming new LEED-certified apartment building with solar panels on the roof, classy high-efficiency windows, and a sleek overall look.
Glenn Petherick • 2 min read
The compromise omnibus measure, approved a few days earlier by Congress, funds the federal government through September 30, 2014, authorizing $1.012 trillion in total discretionary spending. For the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (FY 2014), the FY 2014 appropriation is $45.5 billion, almost $4 billion higher than the FY 2013 post-sequestration level. Some HUD programs are funded at higher levels than FY 2013 while some programs have cuts.
Glenn Petherick • 1 min read
On December 9, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released a new report on various aspects of U.S. rental housing that notes that many American renters have severe affordability problems because of weak income growth and rising rents.
David A. Smith • 4 min read
Stuffed into the Dodd-Frank legislation, the tangible manifestation of the witch hunt after the subprime collapse, is a provision, the long-awaited and long-delayed Volcker Rule that put the entire LIHTC business at risk. Hauled out of retirement to chair President Obama’s task force, former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker believed America’s housing bubble was caused by financial sin: nefarious investment banks subverted wholesome commercial banks, taking consumers’ deposits and used them to concoct toxic assets flipped for fast bucks.