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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently delivered a speech on his vision for tax reform at the 2017 National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Summit. He indicated his hopes to see a comprehensive tax reform bill passed by the end of 2017. “Our goal is to get it done by the end of the year,” Speaker Ryan said. “We think it is very much doable.” Such legislation, he said, would eliminate many deductions, exemptions, exclusions, and credits, and u...
The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) recently released “The State of the Nation’s Housing” report for 2017. The report shows that 37 percent of American households now rent. This marks a 50-year high. The report also finds that the supply of rental housing has not kept pace with demand. As a result, the rental market has a vacancy rate of 6.9 percent, a 30-year low, and 11 million renters spend more than half of their incom...
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) recently released a letter inviting feedback on tax reform. Hatch invited recommendations on a variety of tax-related topics, including four key issue areas—individual income tax relief for middle-class individuals and families, lowering tax rates and broadening the relevant tax base, removing savings and investment impediments and making the United States more competitive through international tax system upda...
Representatives from the IRS and the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently spoke at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development. The representatives did not speak on behalf of their respective agencies, but rather provided personal observations and reflections.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently posted audits of the Section 1602 program for Rhode Island and Arkansas. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package signed into law by President Obama in February 2009 in response to the Great Recession, provided in Section 1602 grants to be awarded to states for low-income housing projects in lieu of low-income housing credit allocations.
On May 9, the television series Frontline aired an installment of a joint investigation with NPR on the affordable housing crisis. This particular episode, titled “Poverty, Politics and Profit,” took a look at the LIHTC program. After the airing, affordable housing industry organizations quickly disputed what they referred to as misleading depictions of the LIHTC program in a joint statement.
A recent report from MPF Research, the intelligence arm of RealPage, has found that Phoenix has the greatest mismatch between needy households and housing credits units. According to the data, Phoenix has just 6.08 housing credit units per 100 low-income households, ranking it the lowest out of the top 50 apartment markets studied by the firm. Phoenix was followed by Pittsburgh (6.13) and Syracuse, N.Y., (6.27).
HUD recently published “Understanding Whom the LIHTC Program Serves: Data on Tenants in LIHTC Units as of December 31, 2014.” The report provides demographic and economic data about LIHTC tenants, including race, ethnicity, family composition, age, income, use of rental assistance, disability status, and monthly rent burden. This report is the third public release of information as required by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008.
HUD recently announced the 2017 income limits for the MTSP housing programs effective April 14, 2017. This includes low-income housing tax credits and tax-exempt bond financing. HUD advises that the income limits are effective immediately for all HUD programs, whereas the IRS allows a transition period from the date of publication to implement the new limits. According to IRS Revenue Ruling 94-57, income limits must be implemented on the effective date or no more than 4...
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) recently released its annual report on fair housing trends. The report, entitled “The Case for Fair Housing: 2017 Fair Housing Trends Report,” includes the most recent data on reported instances of housing discrimination across the country. Every year, the NFHA compiles data from a comprehensive set of fair housing organizations and government agencies to provide a snapshot of what housing discrimination looks like t...