Lifecycle Underwriting Multifamily Tools.

A range of analytical tools from the National Housing Conference and the Center for Housing Policy are HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

US House Hearing Today on FHA Multifamily Programs.

Sub Committee of House Financial Services Committee website for hearing is HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD/FHA MF Processing Changes; Expedited Processing Keeps Evolving From Portland's FastTrack Orgins.

Many many years ago the Portland Office was the first office in the country to use waiver authority to improve the speed of multifamily insurance loan application processing. 

In Portland we actually used a money back guarantee of timely service to induce developers and lenders to use this expedited method of loan processing. We called if FastTrack and one of our marketing slogans was "Unlike fine wine, loan applications do not improve with age" :)

Subsequently many offices adopted their own version of FastTrack processing, and that eventually morphed into a unified national process called MAP. 

In tomorrow's Federal Register HUD is proposing new rules for MAP processing; an advance copy is HERE, but check the Federal Register tomorrow for the final version along with new MAP lender eligibility requirements.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Planned 367 Unit Tualatin Bridgeport Village Apartments Said to Have High Walkabilty Score.

DJC story is HERE. Google Map of address in story is HERE. (Looks like project is SW from REI store, if you know the area).

Originally created and posted on  the Oregon Housing Blog.

Downtown Pittsburgh Commercial to Apartment Conversion Using $39 Million FHA MF Urban Renewal Loan.

WSJ story HERE has details about office conversions happening in downtown Pittsburgh, with at least one higher end project using FHA Multifamily financing.

Digging into HUD databases revealed more loan details:

• Project name is River Vue Apartments
• Project used Section 220 Urban Renewal Program, 
• Project name is River Vue Apartments (Facebook, check out some of views from top floors)
• Project has 220 units,
• Mortgage amount was $39,132,200,
• 40 year interest rate was 4.65%
• Project positioned at luxury, does not use LIHTC.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Barry Apartment Report Winter Edition Out: Half of 2012 Portland Metro Production to be Public Sponsored.

You can view and print this report, focused on Portland metro, from link HERE. 

From the report: 

We expect to see permits for 2,000 to 2,500 new units in 2012, with half of the construction activity in Multnomah County. While this is below the trend line of the five years ended in 2008, we will see double the apartment construction in 2012 that we saw in 2010. We expect that half of this apartment construction will have public sponsorship or participation. [emphasis added].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD/FHA Aims to Process LIHTC Deals More Quickly.

Picked up story HERE from Multifamily Executive tweet. (There were no FHA MF LIHTC loans in Oregon in FY 2011, see my prior post HERE with nationwide data on FHA MF LIHTC loans. 

Likely this story is the result of changes found in HUD MAP guide HERE . It includes several references to LIHTC processing and [Section 5.28] streamlining. (One reference indicates that LIHTC projects are not subject to cost certification, which would be a big post construction time saver).

Note: First FHA insured LIHTC MF loan in the country may have been Autumn Park in Wilsonville in 1989:)

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Construction Started on FHA Insured 150 Unit Freedom Center Apartments in Northwest Portland.

Project is located at 14th and Pettygrove in NW, immediately East of I-405.  (Completed office building is to south of apartment construction).

My prior FY 2011 FHA Oregon multifamily summary HERE  has table that shows $13.037 million loan for 150 units.  

News story from 3 years ago HERE provides more background.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

FHA MF LIHTC Loans FY 2011: 12% of All Projects, 10% of All Units.

I have prepared a first of a kind state level table HERE showing FHA MF initial endorsements (loans) for FY 2011 where LIHTC's were also used.   [States where NO LIHTC units were insured (like Oregon) are omitted from this table].

Some observations:

1. FHA MF loans for 155 projects with nearly 19,000 units were made to projects using LIHTC. (Not shown in table: Private investment in these FHA MF loans using LIHTC was nearly $1.2 billion [not including the value of LIHTC's]).
2. 12% of all FHA MF projects used LIHTC.
3. 31% of all FHA MF new construction and substantial rehab projects used LIHTC.
4. 81% of all HFA risk sharing projects used LIHTC.
5. 68% of "QPE risk sharing" [Fannie and Freddie] projects used LIHTC.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD/FHA Multifamily Loans FY 2011: In Oregon, By HUD Region, and by State.

I have put together a single PDF file HERE that includes a breakout of FHA multifamily loans in Oregon, and summaries by HUD region and by state for FY 2011, which ended September 30th. [Data does not include hospital programs].

This is the first/only posting of this data at this level of detail that you will find.

Observations: 

• Oregon: 21% of Oregon's 1,568 units were new construction.  4 of the 10 Oregon loans made were made by CW Capital; 3 of the 10 loans were in Hillsboro and 3 were in Portland. Oregon's MF FHA loan production in FY 2011 was down slightly from FY 2010; see my earlier post HERE.
• HUD Regions: Region 5 (my former Midwest HUD region) had 26.5% of all HUD MF loans units. HUD Region 10, which includes Oregon had the lowest regional share of total units, at 3.1 %
• States: Texas had the largest share of units, with 9.2% of the national total. 

FHA MF Loan Volume vs FHA SF Loan Volume In Oregon

To put Oregon's FHA Multifamily loan production in perspective the $124,592,100 in loans during ALL of FY 2011  represented only 53% of the $234,883,479 FHA Single Family average Oregon MONTHLY loan production so far in CY 2011.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

FHA Oregon FY 2010 Multifamily Apartment Loans: 1,700 Units, $138 Million.

Standard Dairy, Portland

I have prepared a legal size table HERE showing details about FY 2010 FHA multifamily apartment loans in Oregon (NOT including health care loans). Includes lender, city location, date, and whether loan is new construction or refinance.

Observations:

1. 5 of 11 projects were in the Portland metro area; Salem had the most projects (3).
2. One 496 unit refinance project in Hillsboro accounted for 29% of all units.
3. There were only two new construction projects, both outside Portland metro area [Medford and Salem] and one tax credit project in Salem.

Hopefully with the currrent fiscal year ending in little more than a month, I will be able to prepare a new report showing FY 2011 Oregon production sometime in the fall.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Some Want HUD/FHA/Fannie/Freddie to Jack Up Allowable Commercial to Up to 45% of Project.

D.C. Streets Blog post is HERE.  Post says some want to increase commercial use limit to 45% of project.

My multifamily experience is that income from non housing uses often failed to meet projections, ending up with housing subsidizing the commercial space---NOT a good thing for a housing finance program. 

My take is that it would be better to handle unique situations through waivers but ONLY if there are enforceable front end long term lease requirements that insure clearly definable future income stream and IF those waivers are transparent and disclosed.  Your take? -Add a comment. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Portland MF Projects in the Works.

DJC story is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NSP Allocations Should be Coming SOON; Oregon Minimum is $5 Million.

NSP3 allocations should be arriving SOON since House Financial reform bill provisions HERE required publication within 30 days of enactment, which occurred on July 21. That assumes of course that HUD meets the statutory deadline. 

Oregon should receive a minimum of $5 million in this allocation.

My most recent NSP3 post HERE pointed out that rental housing development was an eligible use under NSP 3, and could be also for unobligated or unexpended NSP 1 or 2 funds. 

Seems logical that HUD will need to issue some guidance to clarify eligible uses and processes to reprogram NSP 1 and NSP 2 funds.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Final Tax Credit Rule for FHA Multifamily Loans Coming Monday.

Advance copy available Friday HERE (look in Federal Register on Monday as this link will likely disappear then).

This rule conforms HUD’s Federal Housing Administration multifamily mortgage insurance regulations to a provision in Title VIII of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that prohibits a requirement that tax credit sales proceeds be placed into escrow, at the time of initial endorsement, for assurance of project completion and to pay the initial service charge, carrying charges, and legal and organizational expenses incident to the construction of the project. This rule does not prohibit HUD from requiring escrows of funds for other purposes, such as for working capital. The rule also makes other changes to reduce burdens on the use of tax credits....A full discussion of section 2834(c) of HERA, the tax credit programs related to this rule, and the proposed rule can be found in the proposed rule at 74 FR 52354-52355.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Groan...HUD Mandates Composition/Procedures for HUB and National Multifamily FHA Loan Committees.

Gory details are in (MS Word) Housing Notice 10-13 HERE.

Perhaps warranted by lack of uniformity and recent bad loan history, but as former MF Chief I would have hated idea of committees in Seattle and DC making loan decisions. IF owners have alternatives in market place, you can bet they will be looking for them. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

DOE Finally Publishes (In a Non Useful Format) Lists of MF Properties Whose Tenants Meet Weatherization Funding Eligibility Requirements.

A week past the effective date of new rules, the US Department of Energy has finally published listings of Multifamily HUD, RD, or LIHTC buildings that meet some of the automatic tenant eligibility requirements for Weatherization funding. (See my earlier post HERE for the new rules).

The DOE page with qualified MF listings can be found HERE. (I tried to extract Oregon only properties from the Excel listings available on this page, however it appears that DOE has password protected these files so that it is not possible to simply filter/extract state listings. Sigh...)

I ALSO recommend looking at the excellent National Housing Trust web summary of the DOE rules HERE, this document includes a table explaining how the complicated weatherization rules apply to different HUD, Rural Development and LIHTC programs.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Legislature Passes Bill Expanding OFA Housing Activities, AND Sets Stage for BIG Expansion in Use of Build America Bonds.

Following earlier House passage, the Oregon Senate passed HR 3646A on Saturday Feb 20th., moving the bill to the Governor for signature. (The Senate Staff Measure Summary is HERE; it projects a .5% to .8% reduction in interest rate for Build America bonds).

The bill authorizes the Oregon Treasurer to receive tax credits and rebates from the Federal Treasury and expands eligible housing related activities of the Oregon Facilities Authority.

One likely outcome of the bill that seems likely is a LARGE expansion of the use in Oregon of Build America bonds.

My recent post on state use of municipal bonds for 2009 included a Bond Buyer table that showed that Oregon had issued only $21.5 million in Build America bonds in 2009 vs $1.844 BILLION in Washington State.

My Projections of Oregon Debt Payment Savings from $1 Billion in Build America Bonds:$65-$104 Million Over 20 Years.
The Senate Staff Measure Summary projects a .5% to .8% reduction in interest rates by using Build America bonds; at a volume of $1 Billion, a 20 year term, and a NON BA bond rate of 5%, the BA bonds would save /reduce borrowing costs by $65-$104 million over a 20 year period or $3.3 million to $5.2 million annually.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregonian Front Page RE Blog Has Link to Three Portland Metro MF Market Updates.

Oregonian Front Page RE Blog post is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD 3rd Qtr Housing Market Conditions Report Has MF Financing Analysis.

Report HERE will open to section analyzing changing nature of multifamily housing finance.(Market Conditions Report also has lots of other useful background/historical data).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.