Skip to main content

Student Corner: Report: The Unintended Consequences of Housing Finance

April 7, 2016

The Unintended Consequences of Housing Finance is a recent report by the Regional Plan Association that addresses the negative externalities of certain federal housing finance rules, and myriad methods to address these externalities through rule changes and amendments. Perhaps it is not immediately … Read more

Student Corner: Tools for financing development in revitalization areas: HUD Multifamily Loan Products

March 8, 2016

Many people are familiar with HUD FHA mortgage insurance programs for single-family housing. These programs insure mortgages for lenders providing loans to single-family home borrowers and have been a significant driver in shaping the housing and mortgage markets in the United States over the last 8 … Read more

U.S. EDA Resources Help Communities Build the Local Ecosystem for Sustainable Economic Development

February 2, 2016

It takes a multitude of resources, dedicated professionals, and committed organizations to promote economic development. Successfully realizing the economic potential of a place requires doing the hard work of leveraging all existing regional assets to build the environment, or ecosystem, where busi … Read more

Many Mini-Bonds in the Mile High City

November 25, 2014

$12 million in one hour: That’s not a report of the ticket sales for the Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s Greensboro show last week. That is how much the City of Denver raised directly from the citizens of Colorado for the final phase of its Better Denver capital campaign. This past August, the Ci … Read more

Student Corner: Town of Hillsborough: Special Assessments (Part III)

March 13, 2014

This post is part of a series (Part I here and Part II here) on the Town of Hillsborough’s implementation of special assessment project financing. Part II mentioned the lengthy process to coordinate the thoughtful deliberation of the town’s policy. So far the series has differentiated the special as … Read more

Student Corner: Town of Hillsborough: Special Assessments (Part II)

February 20, 2014

In our series on the Town of Hillsborough’s use of special assessments for project development financing we left by contrasting the tool with tax increment financing in Part I of this series. Part II reviews some of the unique aspects of the implementation process. The School of Government’s Kara Mi … Read more

Student Corner: Historic rehabilitation partnerships given “safe harbor” by IRS

February 13, 2014

Recently, developers and investors in historic rehabilitation projects—and the communities in which they work—let out a big sigh of relief. After months of uncertainty, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance on January 9, 2014 that cleared up the terms by which developers can allocate to their … Read more

Student Corner: Town of Hillsborough: Special Assessments (Part I)

February 6, 2014

In the fall of 2013, a blog post on special assessments for financing infrastructure included a short description of the Town of Hillsborough’s use of this finance strategy. Hillsborough was the first local government in North Carolina to borrow money and pledge special assessments as security for a … Read more

Mezzanine Financing in Community Economic Development

August 9, 2013

Mezzanine financing, or mezz debt, can play a critical role in the funding of a community economic development project and has other advantages discussed in this post, but what exactly is it, and how does it work? Financing the renovation of historic buildings is far more complicated than new constr … Read more

Student Corner: Master Development Agreements: Evaluate Contingencies

July 5, 2013

Five years ago, excitement was building over the prospect of a new downtown vision. Local officials had just signed a long-term development agreement with an experienced master developer known for successful downtown redevelopment projects. The town and the developer worked hard to create a downtown … Read more