Affordable Housing Finance Techniques

This course presents a detailed review of the techniques for financing affordable housing. In combination with the focus on financing techniques, the course also looks at the development issues associated with this complex area and the policy focus of governmental programs. Incentives, public-private partnerships, the use of tax exempt bonds, the securitization of debt are all techniques initially developed for use in residential finance and in the financing of affordable housing. The crisis in credit and mortgage markets is impacting every segment of the real estate finance industry, including affordable housing. The residential finance system that has evolved in the US over the past 50 years is in the process of breaking down and being remade. Housing policy and the federal role in making residential mortgage markets function, as well as serving the affordable housing needs of the country, is in flux. Although the course is focused on finance and financing techniques, it will consider the role of the public sector in regulating and creating incentives for the development and financing of housing in particular. The public sector’s role ranges from the establishment and regulation of the capital markets, to the creation of tax incentives and specialized treatment for real estate enterprises and to the offering of particular subsidies for the development of affordable housing. An understanding of the public sector’s financial and regulatory role is essential for understanding real estate financial markets in general and housing markets in particular. Every real estate project, and especially affordable housing projects, has a hidden partner: the federal government. The course will primarily be taught through the case method. Each class will have a case, finance problem and reading assignment.

Must enroll in this class if you would like to take the spring affordable housing class “Affordable Housing Development”

Recommended for RED students.