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A recent Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies Report found that the rental market continues to improve. According to the report, 2013 was the strongest year for multifamily housing starts since 1998. However, the report also noted that affordable housing remains out of reach for millions of households. In 2012, only 3.3 million rental units were available and affordable for the 11.5 million households with extremely low incomes. This represents a gap of about 8.2 mi...

As Internet-based apartment-sharing services such as Airbnb have become more popular, households may seek to rent out their unit to strangers for short stays to supplement their income. Although many owners and managers of conventional sites allow this practice, letting low-income households sublet units at a tax credit site could lead to noncompliance.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) is asking the Supreme Court to rule that disparate impact claims are not a part of the Fair Housing Act. If the Court grants the writ of certiorari the Texas agency wants, it would be the third Fair Housing Act disparate impact case before the Court since 2012.

At a Marquette University panel discussion, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said suburban politicians aren't applying for federal low-income housing tax credits that would help more poor residents live in their communities. He accused three suburban counties of refusing to seek federal tax credits that would help low-income residents live closer to jobs.         

Last month, Congressmen Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, and Richard Neal, D-Mass., introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 4717) that would encourage additional private investment in affordable rental housing. The Tiberi-Neal bill would make permanent the 9 percent Housing Credit for new construction and create a new 4 percent credit rate floor for investment in existing developments.

Moody’s Investors Service recently released a report entitled “2013 Medians Underscore Strength of State HFA Multifamily Programs.” It found that state housing finance agencies’ (HFA) multifamily bond programs continued to perform strongly in 2013. The report looked at 41 multifamily bond programs administered by 20 state HFAs. Here are the four major findings in the report:

To keep affordable rental housing a viable option for low-income families, Freddie Mac has announced a new initiative to increase co-effective financing for tax-exempt multifamily properties. The initiative, which is being labeled as the “Direct Purchase of Tax-Exempt Loans,” will involve Freddie Mac Multifamily purchasing its Targeted Affordable Housing (TAH) lender network multifamily tax-exempt loans, and aggregating and securitizing them into a new serie...

Home building and remodeling, including the development and rehab of LIHTC sites, have generated 274,000 jobs over the past two and a half years, said Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Dietz recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy during a hearing examining the drivers of job creation. He discussed the health of housing as a key for the overall state of the U.S. econom...

Q: A young couple is interested in renting a one-bedroom unit at your tax credit site. They recently moved here from Russia, so you tell them about a vacancy next door to a Russian-speaking family. Although there are other available units, you believe they’d be more comfortable living near others who share the same cultural background. Since you’re looking out for their best interests, you can’t be ...

On April 3, the Senate Finance Committee amended and then approved by voice vote tax extender legislation known as the EXPIRE Act. This legislation extends dozens of expiring and expired tax provisions, including those relating to the LIHTC program. It was drafted by Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D. Ore., and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R. Utah. The extension is through 2015. And now that the Senate Finance Committee has approved the bill, Wyden may introduce it to...