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Filmmaker George Lucas has pulled the plug on building a new film studio and floated another option for the Northern California site – affordable housing.
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Apartment Finance Today recently sat down with John Cannon to discuss why he came to Freddie, what the company hopes to achieve, and the servicing of loans in the CME program.
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The 4 percent low-income housing tax credit (LIHTCs) market is often overshadowed by the more dynamic market for 9 percent LIHTCs. But as prices for 9 percent LIHTCs continue to climb, and yields continue to drop, more investors are considering 4 percent LIHTCs as a viable alternative.
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The HOPE VI program's focus on mixing incomes and reducing density resulted in the loss of more than 100,000 units of affordable housing, a lesson HUD has taken to heart.
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The Chicago Housing Authority's ambitous Plan for Transformation is now in its 13th year, and the agency hopes to correct some mistakes in the second coming of the Plan.
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Many municipalities smile upon mixed-income developments, and more developers are finding opportunities in tax-credit deals by partnering with nonprofits.
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Many market-rate developers, frustrated by the conventional construction-debt market, are turning to tax-exempt bonds to jump-start long-delayed developments.
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The Newton Square, Penn.-based developer, which pioneered the student and military housing industries, has broken ground on Futures of Palm Beach, the first of many high-end drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers it plans to open.
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As the Capital Markets Execution program matures, some speed bumps are being felt on the back end of the process in the servicing of the loans.
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While equity investors continue to favor urban transit–oriented developments, it's growing more difficult to find the debt at leverage levels that would make those deals pencil out.
Down is up, love is hate, and the GSEs spend more money to look like they're spending less. Welcome to the Age of Conservatorship.
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The idea of the bifurcated market came up a lot at the Apartment Finance Today Conference in Las Vegas this week. Despite a robust national recovery, from an equity and debt perspective the apartment industry is still a market of “haves” (the “sexy six” markets) and have nots (many smaller locales...
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The uncertainty over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac looms large over the multifamily finance industry, said panelists at a session on housing finance reform at the recent Apartment Finance Today Conference.
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Life insurance companies and some commercial banks are increasingly challenging the dominance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, often by offering a more flexible product, said panelists at the recent Apartment Finance Today Conference.
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After the credit rating downgrade and debt ceiling crisis late last summer, construction slowed around the country. But as 2012 moves into the second quarter, panelists at the Apartment Finance Today Conference are seeing conditions improve.
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As cap rates have fallen, equity has had to adjust its expectations. But panelists at the Apartment Finance Today Conference say investors still prefer core markets.
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In his keynote speech at the Apartment Finance Today Conference this week, former Trammell Crow Residential CEO Ron Terwilliger shared six lessons that developers must remember as they start breaking ground again.
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While many investors view the federal REO-to-Rental program as a way to cash-in on a government fire sale, one nonprofit sees the program not just as a financial opportunity, but a social one.
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The construction debt market is heating up, though much of the activity is concentrated on a continued "flight to safety" by financiers.
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Two new agency lenders were created this month, but while the company names are new, the faces behind them are very familiar.
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In a speech titled "My Life as a Developer," the man responsible for building more units than anyone in the nation will impart a few lessons learned in surviving market cycles through his nearly 40-year career.
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In his 25-year career at Fannie Mae, Jeff Hayward has worn a lot of different hats, including director of quality control, senior mortgage-backed securities negotiator, and vice president of single-family risk management, to name a few. And his resume just added another title: executive vice...
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Of the Top 10 markets with the most cap-rate compression last year, five were in the Midwest. A peek inside the numbers shows which secondary markets are primed for big years in 2012.
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One of the key metrics that multifamily investors consider before pulling the trigger on a deal may not be what it appears.
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The federal agency charged with overseeing Fannie and Freddie has proposed a framework for housing finance reform and asks the GSEs' multifamily divisions to study how effective their businesses would be without a government guarantee.
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The federal REO-to-Rental program will make the shadow market that much larger, but much remains to be seen in terms of how it will affect apartment owners in the nation's hardest-hit metros.
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Marie Head has had a busy three months at the helm of the FHA's multifamily division as she focuses on expediting the agency's notoriously slow delivery system.
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The affordable housing debt industry posted another strong year in 2011 as the major banks jockeyed for position while private agency lenders re-engaged the market.
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More banks are increasing their affordable housing lending operations—not because they have to but because they want to.
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently debuted its Real Estate Owned Initiative, hoping to turn the nation's glut of foreclosed single-family houses into rentals.
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Ken Bacon will soon retire from his post as Fannie Mae's highest-ranking multifamily executive, and will be replaced by Jeff Hayward, the company confirmed.
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Fannie Mae saw some stiff competition from the banking sector last year for loans of $5 million or less, and that dynamic should only grow this year.
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Though the competitive landscape grew more heated last year, the overall market for permanent multifamily debt also expanded, allowing Fannie and Freddie to capture more than a 60 percent market share.
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The demand for construction debt is expected to be high in 2012 as developers urgently try to make up for lost time. But the supply of ready and willing banks will be a limiting factor.
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After a decade with the industry's leading mezz provider, Dave Valger steps out on his own eyeing preferred-equity investments.
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David Ravin, the onetime head of Crosland's multifamily division, has started a new firm and is taking some former Crosland developments, employees, and property management assignments with him—not to mention a few lessons learned.