Multi-Family Finance

HUD’s Office of Public Housing Investments (OPHI) has released a memo informing stakeholders of the schedule for processing mixed-finance projects intending to close by the end of the 2013 calendar year. Parties wishing to close a mixed-finance project by December 31 must adhere to the submission schedule outlined in the memo.

HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published a Notice in the Federal Register to solicit comments about a proposal for an initiative which will help facilitate financing of small, multifamily buildings. HUD’s intent is to implement the Small Multifamily Building Risk Share Initiative directed to facilitating the financing of small multifamily properties.

HUD has released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document on RAD Rent and Funding Levels for Applications Received by December 31, 2013, which incorporate and expand on elements contained in previous FAQs posted on 3/15/13 and 9/13/13.

All conference materials, PowerPoint presentations, relevant articles, reports, memos, etc. from the 2013 NCHMA Annual Meeting are available for download.

HUD recently released Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2013–31, which extends certain provisions within a previously released ML 2012-13 and ML 2011-13. The authority within ML 2011-13 allowed Multifamily HUD Hubs to process waiver requests pertaining to the three-year rule for Section 223(f) applications, but that rule expired in July 2012 and ML 2012-13 extended the rule for one year.

On Wednesday, October 9, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on Hosing Finance Reform: Essential Elements of the Multifamily Housing Finance System,” which focused on the multifamily perspective of housing finance reform.

Multifamily housing developers, community organizations, investors, and lenders interested in affordable rental housing in New England have a new resource available that provides a comprehensive overview of current opportunities. A special report entitled “A Variety of Approaches: New England State Agencies Differ in Needs, Priorities in Their Housing Credit Programs” reviews recent and current tax credit allocation activity, project trends, and state priorities in the New England states ““Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently issued a call for public input on strategies for reducing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s presence in the multifamily housing finance market in 2014.

HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Multifamily Housing Ben Metcalf recently released a letter announcing that the agency has exhausted its $25 billion commitment authority limit allotted for fiscal year (FY) 2013 to operate its FHA Multifamily Risk Share and Healthcare programs.

HUD has issued a notice announcing that mortgage insurance premiums (MIPs) for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Multifamily, Healthcare Facilities, and Hospital mortgage insurance programs that have commitments to be issued or reissued in FY-2014 will remain the same as in FY-2013.

House Finance Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) recently announced intentions to introduce the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH ) Act, a measure which according to Hensarling, would create a more sustainable housing finance system.

HUD’s director of Multifamily Development, Theodore Toon, recently issued a memo to provide guidance on Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and MAP Guide policy regarding age restrictions in FHA-insured housing.