Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

“Construction costs are going up and the sources of funding going down,” declares Tim Leonhard, international director for JLL Capital Markets.

Larry Kraemer, executive vice president at Harkins Builders, can talk all day about budgets, preconstruction services and construction materials and labor – and why affordable housing is no longer affordable to build.

The Phoenix metro area may seem distant from Canada—both geographically and in other ways—but the two are interconnected. According to Glenn Williamson, CEO of the Canada Arizona Business Council, Canadians began moving en masse into the area in the 1960s, while seeking second homes for the winter.

Just as LIHTC allocating policies and priorities differ from state to state, so too does the qualified contract (QC) process. As more and more LIHTC properties reach Year 15, Novogradac & Company LLP and Tax Credit Advisor (TCA) teamed up to examine and understand national QC trends and implications.

Perhaps I’m biased, but my hometown of Charlottesville has to be one of America’s most beautiful areas. The 49,000-person city, which regularly makes lists of best places to live, is nice inside and out. Within the core are various World Heritage sites and quality public spaces that create a charming feel. This continues when driving out to the countryside, where lush farms and forests lead up into the Blue Ridge Mountains.

When the conversation turns to high cost, we wish it would go away. We are defensive, hesitant, technical and long-winded; modes of argument that make the industry look like complacent apologists for the status quo. Though our mode of argument hasn’t cost us yet, if we allow others to frame the debate, inevitably it will.

All developers have been through it – as new properties are designed and constructed, costs and budgets clash with project needs, wants and pie-in-the-sky wishes. As the design process progresses, a project takes shape that is closely trimmed by budget and time constraints.

YouthBuild’s origin story goes back to 1978, when Dorothy Stoneman, a Harvard-educated civil rights and community activist educator in East Harlem, surveyed the students with whom she worked, asking how they thought they could best improve their neighborhoods if they had some adult support.

“Longevity is going to change everything,” says Kathryn Lawler, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Collective for Health Improvement and one of the most popular presenters on the aging conference circuit.

We cannot deny we have a national housing crisis. A new study commissioned by the National Multifamily Housing Council recently found that the U.S. must add 325,000 new apartments annually to meet rising demand, while the average production over the past four years has only been 244,000 units per year.