| Last week?s release of the stark 2010 Census numbers on poverty—one in six of us are in it—quantified what we already know: Many can't afford to live where they are. In Austin, Apartment Realty Advisors principal Dave Fournier tells us affordable housing occupancy is particularly tight for the LIHTC properties that serve tenants at 30% of area median income and where average market rents are high (i.e. Chicago). In other words, renters are downgrading asset classes and driving up demand for affordable housing. All of multifamily has been on fire, but investors are moving into affordable from market-rate for the fundamentals. The hottest affordable markets: California, Florida, and core cities. |
| In Northern Virginia, Nina Janopaul, who heads the Arlington Affordable Housing Partnership there, tells us the burst of affordable housing construction has slowed after 60 days of erratic stock market graphs on the 5 o'clock news. Her organization works closely with the Arlington Food Assistance Center, which records more people getting supplemental food each week. And Nina?s watching Bank of America?s restructuring closely, not just because it supports APAH philanthropically but also because it's been a big LIHTC investor. |
| The 2010 poverty level is the highest since ?93, the year Joy Horak-Brown (at her firm's LEED Platinum 2424 Sakowitz) and her cohorts founded New Hope Housing in Houston, which provides supportive housing for those who don't have the income to qualify for affordable housing. The company, supported by LIHTC and federal funds distributed through the city government, has 634 units (more like top-notch college dorms than Class-C apartments), but demand there, too, is on the rise: 160 more units are under construction, and Joy traveled to Austin last week to start work on a community there. |
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