HUD has published average income minimum set-asides for low-income housing tax credit properties. Income limits are provided for every 10 percent increment from 20 percent to 80 percent of the area median income in each state and metropolitan fair market rent/income limits area, based on the fiscal year 2019 Multifamily Tax Subsidy Project income limits. The 20 percent to 80 percent income limits can be found here.
In Alabama, a court recently ruled against the state’s Department of Revenue (DOR) concerning its policy of disregarding LIHTC extended-use restrictions when determining assessment of value for property taxes. The Alabama Affordable Housing Association (AAHA) had filed a lawsuit arguing the DOR was wrong in treating low-income housing incentives as taxable assets. The Circuit Court of Jefferson County ruled in favor of the AAHA. The ruling said counties “must take into account the legal restrictions on rents and use and operation of such properties.”
In January, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a bill establishing a Maine affordable housing tax credit (AHTC). The Maine State Housing Authority will be tasked with administering and allocating $80 million of credits to affordable rental housing developers between 2021 and 2028, with up to $10 million allocated each year. The program would also leverage an equal amount of federal low-income housing tax credit dollars.The law aims to create nearly 1,000 additional affordable housing units over eight years and double the current rate of new affordable housing production in Maine.
The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently launched an internal investigation on abuse in the Opportunity Zone program. Treasury Inspector Richard Delmar announced the investigation a few months after Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), and Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) sent him a letter requesting an investigation after news reports indicated that friends of the Trump administration were benefiting from the program.
Freddie Mac recently announced it has topped the $1 billion mark in LIHTC equity investments after reentering the market in 2018. Freddie Mac has created an interactive map that details each of its LIHTC equity investments, including property names, locations, the number of units financed, and other key facts.
HUD recently released its 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. HUD’s national estimate is based upon data reported by approximately 3,000 cities and counties across the nation. Every year on a single night in January, planning agencies called “Continuums of Care” (COC), along with tens of thousands of volunteers, seek to identify the number of individuals and families living in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and in unsheltered settings.
A bipartisan group of 45 mayors from communities in 19 states and the District of Columbia recently sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling for the addition of the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 (AHCIA) in any year-end legislative tax package. The letter said the LIHTC is our nation’s primary tool for encouraging private investment in affordable rental housing. And the AHCIA would help strengthen and expand the highly effective Housing Credit, resulting in more than half a million additional affordable homes nationwide over the next decade.
Tax credit sites have recently enjoyed strong occupancy rates and healthy financial conditions, according to CohnReznick’s Tax Credit Investment Services’ annual report on the performance of sites financed with the federal LIHTC. The data in this report provide detailed insights into the performance of LIHTC properties and the latest performance trends observed across the surveyed portfolio, consisting of more than 20,000 properties.
Legislation recently introduced in the South Carolina Legislature would create a state-level LIHTC for sites in Opportunity Zones (OZs). All three co-sponsors are members of the Democratic Party, which is in the minority in the State House. The bill would automatically qualify LIHTC developments in OZs for a new state LIHTC equal to the federal credit and would also create a 25 percent credit for investments in OZs, with an annual cap at $50,000 per taxpayer.
The IRS recently published Revenue Procedure 2019-41, which announced the amounts of unused LIHTC carryovers allocated to qualified states for calendar year 2019. Unused LIHTCs are oftentimes generated from small amounts of LIHTCs returned by affordable housing developments or from otherwise remaining LIHTCs toward the end of the year that could not be matched with new applications before the end of the year. The national pool sweeps up these amounts and distributes the total to other states.
