The fiscal year (FY) 2020 appropriations bills recently passed through Congress and was signed by President Trump before the Dec. 20 deadline, averting a government shutdown like the one experienced with the FY 2019 spending bills. The FY 2020 measures include appropriations for Transportation-...
Nearly two years after the Opportunity Zone initiative was enacted into law as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, the Treasury Department and the IRS has issued final regulations on Qualified Opportunity Funds. The final regulations are a modification and merger of the first and second...
The IRS recently published Revenue Procedure 2019-44, which provides the per capita and small state minimum levels for the LIHTC and Private Activity Bonds (PABs). These volume cap figures are adjusted annually for inflation. And, for the LIHTC, the volume cap includes the temporary 12.5 percent...
Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) recently introduced the “Affordable Housing and Area Median Income Fairness Act of 2019” (H.R.4984). The bill attempts to change how HUD calculates the area median income (AMI). For Clarke’s constituency, the AMI calculation incorporates not...
Recently, congressional Democrats have been increasing oversight efforts over the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program. This program is a community investment incentive established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural...
Freddie Mac recently released a white paper highlighting the role that the LIHTC program serves in the rural Lower Mississippi Delta. The report shows that the LIHTC program supports a substantial percentage (39.2 percent) of multifamily rental housing in the region, more than three times the...
The New Democrat Coalition (NDC) is a Congressional Member Organization within the U.S. Congress made up of centrist Democrats who support an agenda that the organization describes as “moderate” and “pro-growth” and who support a balanced budget. Entering the 116th...
An Indiana Tax Court recently reversed an Indiana Board of Tax Review’s final determination that concluded a low-income apartment complex owner failed to prove it qualified for a charitable purposes exemption. In 2007, the owner purchased a HUD site for low-income renters in the county....
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) recently released a housing report entitled, “Locked Out: Reversing Federal Housing Failures and Unlocking Opportunity.” It calls on the federal government to “reassert its partnership to become a constructive force for equity, accessibility...
During the August recess, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act garnered more support and co-sponsorships from Congressional members. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 was reintroduced in June by U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Ron...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced that it will increase caps on the amount of multifamily loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase next year while also closing some loopholes. The regulatory agency will now limit the two firms to purchasing $100 billion in...
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies recently published a report called “A Home Builder Perspective on Housing Affordability and Construction Innovation.” It found that both single-family and multifamily home builders identify labor and building-material costs and...
