Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

This is an auspicious year.

A new land banking program in Colorado aims to help developers purchase land for affordable housing, solving the unique problem of not having tax credits to purchase land, as well as creating access to development in rural areas. 

Minnesotans hoping to bolster the state’s affordable housing stock may donate to affordable housing projects, requesting to have their donation allocated to a specific project or a general affordable housing fund and receive a tax credit of 85 percent of their donation through a new state program.

For much of the past 14 years, Will Eckstein has led the team responsible for securing new affordable housing development opportunities at Greystone Affordable Development,. Tax Credit Advisor sat down with Eckstein to learn more about HHAD and his priorities for the balance of 2024. 

Government programs typically do not consider or emphasize strategic and meaningful leveraging and collaboration with other programs, much less provide valuable guidance to do so.

Recent good news has me feeling like the affordable housing industry is awakening from a bleak winter into a springtime blossoming with federal action that will make it easier to build and preserve affordable housing.

Those who say you can’t put a price on virtue have never worked in the capital markets. Although people say they value many things, what they actually pay for is what they truly value. Increasingly, that is virtue, or the appearance of virtue, now manifesting itself in the availability, terms, security and risk-adjusted yield of debt or equity instruments.

Against a backdrop of rising rents nationwide and a lack of housing supply in major cities, suburbs, and rural areas, leaders in Washington, DC are devoting significant time and attention to addressing the affordable housing crisis. President Biden, in his March 7th State of the Union address, called for Congress to enact his plan to “build and renovate two million affordable homes and bring…rents down.”

Since 2018, the City of Baltimore, the Housing Authority of Balti-more City (HABC), planners, architects and developers have been working on a comprehensive redevelopment of a large public housing project near the city’s famous Inner Harbor.

The California city of Santa Barbara is an affluent place. Oprah Winfrey lives there. President Reagan had his ranch there. But its commercial district was starting to look ragged post-pandemic, with stores going out of business due to online competition from Amazon and others.

John B. Cruz III is a raconteur. You’ll learn a lot from listening for an hour to this dignified, elderly developer, head of the Cruz Companies in Boston.

As challenges continue to buffet the low-income housing market, an increasing number of states are implementing their own versions of a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). According to a recent Novogradac report, 17 states have added completely new state tax credit programs since 2013, resulting in a total of 29 states and Washington, DC having unique LIHTC incentives.