Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are being permitted to re-enter the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market, it was announced Nov. 16. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), has allowed Fannie and Freddie to invest in the credits on a limited basis, reports Donna Kimura of MFE sister brand Affordable Housing Finance. [The FHFA] cited several factors for its decision, including furthering the enterprises’ mission to support affordable housing and ensuring that they could provide “a countercyclical role in the LIHTC market in the future if needed.” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were two of the nation’s largest LIHTC investors, representing an estimated 35% to 40% of the market, before being placed into conservatorship by FHFA in 2008.
What makes an investment attractive? An investor's goal most likely is to capture a profit, but what else? What about improving community or impacting the future? Here in Mesa we need to ask the same questions . . . Re: 2 new proposals for 'conceptual renderings' and 'pretty pictures on two pieces of property along the line of the Valley Metro Light Rail extension into the Central Business District here in The New Urban DTMesa . . . Is this the "Salvation Train" we are waiting for?
Here's one in the historic district on the south side of Main Street between Center and MacDonald where mostly two-story legacy buildings with façades have shaped the streetscape for generations. Some are scheduled for removal or improvement. Here in the image to the right is a way-out-of-scale and way-out-of-proportion rendering that throws the balance of old and new way outta whack with a planned 15-story tower.
Here's another one not in the historic district with a 7-story tower and 350 Sq Ft 'micro-apartments' to be built over a three-story parking garage behind Mesa Municipal Court. It also includes over 25,000 Sq Ft of commercial/office space and 14 row or 'townhouses' on Pomeroy Street. It's called The GRID Project by 3W Management LLC. The city is throwing $3,000,000 to lure a developer and/or investors to the parcel on the SWC of Main/Mesa Drive, with a 'pretty picture' of something called Gateway Park. 1. What makes an investment attractive? 2. An investor's goal most likely is to capture a profit, but what else? 3. What about improving community or impacting the future? ________________________________________________________________ Certain regulations and codes have made it hard for banks and other lenders to offer money to projects that aren’t the norm. As such, innovation can be stifled by the ability to obtain capital. But now, with the advent of technology, projects that previously couldn’t be funded because of bank limitations can now be extended to and supported by the broader community. Eve Picker, founder of the crowdfunding platform Small Change, saw a way to use security regulations to match developers to investors. Here, she talks about how she harnesses the power of social media and email to source investors that are permitted to participate in funding new projects. . .
This method of raising capital is still in the early adopter phase. Few people have been introduced to it and those who have are still questioning the risk. Once it gains momentum, Picker says the “crowd” will realize that it’s a meaningful way to be involved in the community. “There is a palpable need for people to be engaged in the community that they live in,” Picker says. “This is a tool for them not only to be involved but also to get some financial gain.”
See the video and go to original source > http://www.multifamilyexecutive.comPicker is leading a conversation at HIVE 2017, scheduled Dec. 6 and 7 in Los Angeles, on how to disrupt the system of raising capital to support further innovation in housing. Register now to attend.
Ever notice how your MesaZona blogger tries to get a point across, sometimes juxtaposing an image with an article from an original source?
That is oftentimes the case when we all get distracted by what used-to-be-called "yellow journalism" or sensational grubbing to baser instincts like the current explosion in sex scandals erupting in politics, hacking gone-wild grabbing all your data whether you know it or not, while we miss or don't pay attention to what's going on in game-changing serious infringements of what we use and share for basic ways we communicate using the internet and the "Internet of Things".
The issue = Net Neutrality. December 14, 2017 is the date.
The date for what you might ask? Here's Tech Crunch's take on Net Neutrality:
FCC releases final draft of ‘Restoring Internet Freedom,’ which would not do that
The FCC yesterday announced a December 14 vote on “Restoring Internet Freedom,” an order that, far from restoring freedom to the internet, which is already free, would allow it to be restricted in new and harmful ways. Actually, when you think of it as restoring internet freedom to ISPs and cable companies, it makes a lot more sense. At any rate the Commission has released the text of the order ahead of the vote, as promised. It was just put out half an hour ago and it’s about 200 pages long, so it’ll take some time for me and others to sift through it and find out what kind of changes have been made since the draft circulated in late summer. . . Although an FCC representative yesterday said that “we addressed all the serious comments,” that can’t quite be true, . . " Link > https://techcrunch.com The Verge headlined this morning with this:
The US net neutrality fight affects the whole world
an unregulated US internet would feed directly into a push to instill the same legal environment elsewhere.
Is this really what we want the internet to become?
A place full of ignoble economic incentives driving companies to engage in ethically dubious anticompetitive behavior? Internet service providers are doing pretty well in the US even with the currently extant net neutrality laws, which exist mostly to curb those companies’ worst impulses. Why should we distort and disfigure the economics of internet access — something so essential to modern life that countries now treat it as a legal right — just to appease companies that face no threat of going out of business?
The global influence of the United States, and of American online companies, also means that repealing net neutrality within the country’s borders would pose an existential threat to net neutrality around the world.
A whopping 11 views QUESTION: Does anyone know or taken the time to access and read tonight's Study Session Agenda? Citizens here in Mesa - with a population of over 485,000 - just don't seem to care and are not involved or engaged in city government. . . Why is that?? Allotted time: 4:30 - 5:45 Actual time: 22:42 What happened? Councilmember "Glove-Son" ???? Chris Glover is excused. Giles immediately skips to Item P on the agenda without going over previous items City Manager Chris Brady is ready.
Approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Development Agreement, Ground and Air Lease, and License Agreement with 3W Management, LLC, for the development of commercial, residential and public improvements on City-owned property generally located at the southwest corner of Main Street and South Pomeroy and 34 South Pomeroy, and granting option rights to allow for the sale of certain City-owned real property and air-rights that are part of the development. (District 4)
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