fliprent

President Obama and Congress are finalizing an economic recovery bill that could be signed into law by next month. The bill has important implications for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).

The LIHTC is the nation’s largest, most successful affordable rental housing production program. But it has been hit hard by the financial crisis. Investment in the LIHTC fell from about $9 billion in 2007 to about $4-5 billion in 2008. It could drop even further in 2009.

Bringing the LIHTC program back to its full potential is one of the fastest ways to provide an economic stimulus while also assisting low-income working families, including victims of the foreclosure crisis.

BACKGROUND

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the nation’s largest and most successful affordable rental housing production program to date, financing more than two million homes since 1987 and about 120,000 annually in recent years. According to the National Council of State Housing Agencies, approximately 90 percent of all affordable rental housing is financed through the LIHTC. According to the National Association of Homebuilders, building 120,000 homes annually through the LIHTC supports 180,000 jobs annually. 

Source: Enterprise Community Partners

Have a great day and don’t forget its National Service Day.  This is a great opportunity to give in our communities.  The current conditions have created a need for more families than at any point in most of our lifetimes.  Let’s join President Obama and First Lady Michelle in this historic moment.  God Bless!

 2009 King Day of Service Will Be Largest Ever – 12,100 Projects and Counting!

Search for an event near you.

Note to president Obama… Our current financial system doesn’t work!  As if he really needed me to tell him that!  The current mortgage meltdown and credit crisis should tell us all one thing for sure.  We don’t know what the “h-e-double hockey sticks” we are doing in our financial markets.  Many years ago there were no banks or brokers to create this mess.  Banks served a great purpose in building our country to what it is/was.  But maybe its time that we do something different or in this case do it again but better.   What I am referring to is people investing in other people not banks.  Today this concept is commonly referred to as Peer to Peer lending. 

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According to three researches at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 2005 bankruptcy law is another contributor to our economy in crisis.  The article states that prior to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, homeowners were able to file Chapter 7 liquidation.  This allowed them to continue to pay their mortgages while freeing themselves of unsecured (not asset backed) debt.  You can red the rest of the article here.

 By now we all should know how our country got into this economic depression.  Anyone who doesn’t know isn’t paying attention.  Yes I did call it a depression just like I called it a recession before it was official.  It’s not just me either.  However, if you don’t know how it happened, here is my condensed list:

• Lenders
• Mortgage Brokers
• Regulators
• Mortgage Secondary Market
• Investment bankers
• Bernie Maydoff (yes he gets his own category)
• The Feds
• White House
• Congress
• Past Presidents
• New Home Builders
• Real Estate Investors
• Hedge Fund Managers
• Media Outlets

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Sales of pending US homes dropped to a new low in November.  According to the National Association Of Realtors (NAR), signed contracts in November dropped 4.0 percent to 82.3.  This is the lowest level since 2001. Economists expected a 0.1 percent drop, so that should tell you just how far off the mark they are.

Yeah! comments are back!  Akismet is a life saver for Wordpress blogs, along with many others blog engines I’m sure.  Comment Spam on the blog-sphere is out of control!  I had over 11,000 spam comments in the queue.  How ridiculous is that?   Well thankfully I rediscovered this plug-in so we can get back to some meaningful conversation.  Thanks guys at Akismet!  Now if I can only find the time to post articles again…

Today my contractor on the Old E. Baltimore project decided that this job “wasn’t worth it” in his own words.  Hey maybe he’s right.  It’s not worth it for him.  In fact it hasn’t been worth it for me either.  Needless to say, I had no problem with it.  It’s been way too long and he is trying to juggle too many jobs.  Good thing is I don’t have a lot left to do.  Bad news is, its time to get another crew in there.  Parting ways, with no hard feelings, is just fine with me.  I may loose a few more weeks but it’s better than the ensuing battle at the end.  The search begins…  Hey…do you know of a good TRUSTWORTHY carpenter in the area?  Drop me an email if you do. This ought to be fun!  

I’ve been around the block just enough times to decide not to agree to anything in business with a simple handshake.  If I don’t have a contract I don’t write a check.  In the current economy, this is more important to me now than ever before.  here a lot of “hungry” contractors out there right now, which can be both good and bad for investors.  The good news is that the prices have come down considerably.  The bad news is really the same as its always been but a touch worse.  For instance, some contractors will tell you any price to get the job.  After they get the job…well you know the rest after reading this post.  However, once Ive worked with someone long enough I may let up just a smidgen.  

 It seems the smaller contractors don’t like writing contracts.  Some of them even prefer that I write them up.  That’s a scenario that I welcome as an investor.  Since I already have a template, the only things I need to change are the project scope, contractor information and the dates.  The basic protections are in every contract so I don’t need to adjust those normally. You can find more information on remodeling contracts in some of my other posts.   Don’t be afraid to write the contract yourself, in fact insist upon it. 

I have received some emails questioning why I have my comments turned off.  As some of you know I was not updating for a while mostly due to some health issues.  Well while I was away spammers decided that I had an abandoned blog and as you may know, spammers love those.  Once I get this spam under control I will re-open the comments sections of my new posts.  Feel free to leave a comment on any of the previous posts as they are still open.

 Thanks,

Vernon