Walker & Dunlop

It’s a tough time for much of multifamily development, but the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program offers incentives that make much-needed affordable housing comparatively easier to achieve under the current economic conditions. Building is expensive and financing is tight in the current multifamily market. However, as it has for the last 30 years, the LIHTC program provides solutions that increase the ease of creating and sustaining affordable housing, even when the overall multifamily market faces challenges. The program not only promotes the construction and acquisition of housing but also enforces conditions that help maintain the stability and preservation of affordable properties. The program is also needed to address the demand for affordable housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that extremely low-income households represent 25 percent of the nation’s 44.1 million renters and reports a shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available rental homes. Historical Financial Resilience “The LIHTC asset class is resilient, if not countercyclical, under challenging economic times,” says Katie Balderrama, executive vice president of affordable equity at Walker & Dunlop. The firm typically sees a foreclosure rate of under 1 percent on properties supported by LIHTC. “Overall, our affordable housing assets tend to perform fairly …

There are a variety of ways to build affordable housing, but implementing these strategies has become an increasingly difficult proposition in 2023. Affordable housing projects seem to face challenges on every front. Generally affordable housing developers will: Despite intensifying renter demand for new units, developers are struggling to make their projects financially feasible, says John Ducey, chief production officer in the affordable lending group at Walker & Dunlop. “Affordable housing developers are facing some of the toughest headwinds I’ve seen in more than 20 years in the industry,” Ducey says. “That means developers are forced  to work harder than ever to structure deals that stretch scarce housing subsidies and maximize agency financing.” Challenging Conditions One impediment to affordable housing efforts is reduced future rent levels, related to area median income (AMI) caps the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) imposed recently on LIHTC properties in many markets in the United States. The unexpectedly restrictive caps forced developers to slash revenue projections, scuttling some transactions and forcing many loan applicants to renegotiate or seek alternative financing to salvage deals. On the expense side, inflation and the labor crunch continue to drive up costs for new construction, renovation of older affordable …