Jimmy Carter says the Trump administration is ignoring the affordable-housing shortage crisis

August 30, 2018                  By: Emma Newburger

• Former President Jimmy Carter told CNBC that the Trump administration is ignoring a national housing crisis, and he urged voters to support candidates who promote affordable housing.
• Carter also called for broad reform of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said this fall’s elections offer voters a chance to support an issue that has been widely overlooked by candidates in this year’s midterm election cycle.
• "Low-income housing needs to be raised much higher as a priority for our country," Carter said in a phone interview. "That's the first step toward making people who are now dependent on government assistance, on welfare rolls, to get a good job and have a chance to raise their families and put their kids through school."

Thony Belizaire | AFP | Getty Images

Former US President Jimmy Carter helps build a house as he visits the construction site of houses being built by Carter's Habitat for Humanity foundation for victims of the earthquake in Leogane. Haiti in 2012

Former President Jimmy Carter told CNBC this week that the Trump administration is ignoring a national housing crisis, and he urged voters to support candidates who promote affordable housing.

"Low-income housing needs to be raised much higher as a priority for our country," Carter said in a phone interview. "That's the first step toward making people who are now dependent on government assistance, on welfare rolls, to get a good job and have a chance to raise their families and put their kids through school."...........Read More

Affordable Housing: A Safe Investment in Unpredictable Times

August 23, 2018                       By:  Laura Calugar

Avanath Capital Management’s John Williams and Jun Sakumoto explain why affordable housing properties should be seen as opportunities to produce consistent returns. The two executives also revealed their expectations regarding the sector going forward.

Affordable housing is still a hot button issue in many metros across the U.S. According to a recent Yardi Matrix report, despite a strong half of 2018 for the multifamily market, affordability has highly effected rent growth in New York, San Francisco and other large metros. At the same time, at the National Apartment Association’s Apartmentalize conference in San Diego, in June, industry professionals highlighted the benefits that an affordable housing community can bring to a neighborhood.

Jun Sakumoto and John Williams

Avanath Capital Management President & Chief Investment Officer John Williams and Chief Operating Officer Jun Sakumoto discuss the misconceptions regarding profitability in the sector as well as possible solutions to the growing shortage of units for middle-income renters................................Read More

Rising Interest Rates Are Another Blow to Affordable Housing Market

August 14, 2018                        By: Orla McCaffrey

Higher borrowing costs make new projects harder to launch and put future refinancing into question

Rising interest rates are undermining efforts to build more affordable housing, creating larger funding gaps for an industry already grappling with cuts in government subsidies and rising construction costs.

This year’s climb in borrowing costs—coupled with expectations that they will keep rising—has driven down the amount of debt used to fund affordable housing deals, said Michael Novogradac, managing partner of Novogradac & Co., an accounting firm that specializes in affordable housing.

The Genesis Apartments in New York's Harlem are a mixed-income housing project completed in 2011.  PHOTO: Joanna Huckeba/The Wall Street Journal

While national data on the closing rates for affordable housing financing isn’t widely collected, many developers say the rates offered by major national lenders have risen steadily in the past two years. At Bridge Housing, one of the largest affordable housing development groups on the West Coast, both short- and long-term debt rates have climbed.

The permanent debt rate—a measure of the long-term debt projects pay to lenders—was 4.18% for a Bridge project completed in the Mission District of San Francisco in 2016. This year, a proposed development less than a mile away, with the same developer and a similar amount of debt, closed at a rate of 5.06%. The fed-funds rate rose about 1% in the interim........................Read More