Getting Down to Business on the Gulf Coast

By Donna Kimura
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • JUNE 2007
There is no place where the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) is more important than on the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast.
Although every state receives an annual allocation of tax credits to award to affordable housing developers, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are getting considerably more credits than usual as part of a federally created Gulf Opportunity Zone (GO Zone) program to help rebuild the region.
In addition to their regular allocation of LIHTCs, Alabama is receiving $15.7 million in annual GO Zone credits in 2006, 2007, and 2008; Mississippi, $35.4 million; and Louisiana, $56.8 million. For Louisiana, that’s about seven times the amount of its regular tax credit authority.
This means that a lot of tax credit business is taking place on the Gulf Coast. It also means that there’s a huge opportunity for the LIHTC program to show what it can do.

Boy Scouts Buy Tract On Cumberland Plateau

May 16, 2007 07:49 PM EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Boy Scouts of America Council based in Nashville has bought 1,600 acres on the Cumberland Plateau.

The Middle Tennessee Council will be available as a wilderness reservation to Boy Scout troops in the region.

About 300 acres of the tract are cleared and the rest is a pine and hardwood forest.
Scouting officials said the land is surrounded by 50,000 acres of public property, including Fall Creek Falls State Park and the Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, which offers even more opportunity for caving, rock climbing, rappelling, fishing and kayaking.

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Special places saved for generations to come

By Heather Mullinix / hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com

More than 300 acres of land will be permanently protected from development thanks to the gift of land from Plateau Properties to the state of Tennessee and the Cumberland Trail State Park.Rob Harrison, general manager of Plateau Properties, was thanked for the gift that includes the top of Brady Mountain, Brady Bluffs and Salt Peter Cave."I grew up with all of this," said Harrison. "I went hiking up there and would think, 'This is nice and beautiful and it'll always be here.' As I get older, I realize a lot of these special places won't be here if we don't take steps to protect them."The donation was made in honor of Harrison's father, the late Arthur Harrison, and Bob Brown, a noted conservationist and champion of the Cumberland Trail.

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Top 10 'value' cities for retirees

If you want a low cost of living without sacrificing quality of life or access to culture and recreation, consider heading for Hot Springs, Ark., or Winston-Salem, N.C., which rank first and second.

By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch

Hot Springs, Ark., has enjoyed popularity as a spa resort, but its low cost of living also makes it of particular interest for retirees, according to geographer Warren Bland. The Arkansas city is No. 1 on Bland's list of the top 10 value cities for retirees in 2007.

"Hot Springs is an even better bargain in terms of housing costs," he said. Houses from 1,600 to 2,100 square feet average $135,000 to $225,000, according to statistics from Coldwell Banker Alliance Realty in Hot Springs. The central Arkansas location is especially attractive to people with family in the Midwest, Bland said.

To rank the cities, Bland used 12 criteria: landscape, climate, quality of life, cost of living, transportation, retail services, health care, community services, cultural activities, recreational activities, work/volunteer activities and crime. Bland has also authored books on the topic, including "

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U.S. House Prices Slide

By James R. Hagerty

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Tighter credit and a growing glut of properties are depressing an already weak U.S. housing market, wrecking the industry's hopes for an early rebound.
That leaves buyers in a strong position to negotiate for bargains during the spring home-shopping season, the busiest time of the year for housing sales.
Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously occupied homes in March dropped 8.4% from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million units -- the largest monthly drop since 1989. The trade group said the median price for homes was $217,000 in March, down 0.3% from a year earlier.

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Home prices drop for third straight quarter

Realtors report that markets are still softening

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
May 15 2007: 2:07 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. home prices fell for their third straight quarter, according to an industry report released Tuesday.

The median price of a single-family home fell 1.8 percent to $212,300 for the three months ended March 31, compared with the first quarter of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

It was the third consecutive quarter of decline, and prices are now down 6.5 percent from their peak of $227,100 in 2006.

The home price report revealed a broad but shallow pattern with prices declining over every region but by no more than 2.8 percent, which occurred in the Midwest.

Home forecast: 100 biggest markets

New life for downtown Clearwater?

Created: Monday, 14 May 2007, 8:39 PM EDT

CLEARWATER - Three projects now underway could become the spine of a new downtown Clearwater.

Ground was officially broken Monday morning for the Clearwater Center, the last of the three high-rise projects to get started.

Developers plan to fill an outdated office building with condominiums and surround the 15-story tower with three stories of shops and town homes.

"We're on the fringe of downtown, so one of the major advantages is we're less congested, it's quiet," offered Developer Guy Bonneville. His project sits on a hill looking west toward downtown Clearwater and the Intracoastal Waterway.

Station Square is another condo tower under construction in the middle of downtown, and the 26-story Water's Edge project is sprouting on the western side of downtown. All are on Cleveland Street, which used to be the main route to the beaches. Now the corridor is lined with mostly vacant storefronts, as the city completes a $9 million streetscaping project.

Mayor Frank Hibbard is happy to have three major developments spread out over nearly a mile. "When you have these activity centers everything in between those gaps starts to fill in. The private sector figures out what all those residential units desire," he explained. All three developments include shops and restaurants and all three should be open by the end of 2009. That's also the year a new downtown marina will open.

Clearwater Hopes Projects Will Boost Downtown

By STEVE KORNACKI The Tampa Tribune
Published: Apr 18, 2007

CLEARWATER - Mayor Frank Hibbard stood along the harbor beneath the new Memorial Causeway Bridge, staring at the waterway dotted with sailboats and power boats.
"Right now, there is nobody down here. Not one person," he said, shaking his head. "It is one of the most beautiful spots in Tampa Bay. That has got to change."
Hibbard thinks that it will, through several developments that are under way or scheduled in the listless downtown that is the gateway to Clearwater Beach. He also is pondering the possibility of a restaurant-retail complex on the land now occupied by Harborview Center overlooking the waterway.

Hottest 10 Buyers Market

There are still hotly appreciating real estate markets in the U.S., according to a nationwide survey conducted by Housing Predictor.com, which forecasts housing markets futures in more than 250 local housing markets in all 50 U.S. states. Driven by booming local economies and unprecedented growth, the Hottest 10 Buyers Markets in the U.S. are mainly located in the southern half of the nation.

Five of the Hottest 10 Markets in 2007 are located in Texas. The Top spot, however, is Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is projected to appreciate 9.1% by the year’s end. Exploding with a population of almost a million people for the first time in its history, Albuquerque is growing like never before, attracting the movie business from Hollywood with the construction Housing Predictor’s selection of the Hottest 10 Buyers Markets are based on surveys conducted on 75 markets under consideration from more than 250 local housing markets forecast on the web site. McAllen, Texas was selected as the runner-up to Albuquerque to place second among the top 10 markets forecast for the highest appreciation throughout the remainder of the year. Four other Texas markets made the list, reflecting a state real estate market in the Lone Star State that is appreciating at levels not seen in many years. Housing Predictor forecast the current boom in Texas in early 2006. of new movie studios, a new airplane factory and many other new businesses.

Forecast: 100 biggest markets

Analysts still are looking for a relatively mild downturn - but in some areas, things will get worse before they get better.

April 11 2007: 11:38 AM EDT
(Money Magazine) -- Major real estate forecasters are looking for prices to bounce along the bottom this year and next and fully recover by 2009.
"Once the correction from the boom works through, we'll see slow, steady growth," says Celia Chen, Economy.com's director of housing economics, who expects annual price gains of between 2 percent and 4 percent by 2009.
And on Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors said it expects its measure of home prices to fall this year for the first time since the group began tracking sales nearly 40 years ago.
Overall, her firm is predicting that the downturn that started in late 2005 will end up pushing median home prices down 8.7 percent nationwide by the time it ends in early 2008. The nationwide figures, of course, mask a great deal of local variation.
Regions that saw the greatest price appreciation (and speculation) during the boom, such as Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego, are now taking the hardest hit - and will continue to do so until all the air is out of the bubble.

More South Florida homes on the market longer

MIAMI – May 8, 2007 – The number of houses and condos sitting on the market with For Sale signs and lower prices continues to grow in South Florida, according to the latest survey by condovultures.com.The company, a real estate advisory firm in Bal Harbour, tracks homes for sale where the asking price has fallen 10 percent or $100,000, or has been on the market for at least 100 days. It follows properties east of Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties – areas with significant new construction.The report, tracking activity to April 30, found 1,744 properties with significant price dips or more than three months on the market in the two counties, up from 1,493 in March. The properties included 1,060 condos and 684 houses.Peter Zalewski, principal at condovultures.com, said the sluggish market is reaching a point where so-called vulture funds – investment groups looking to buy condos in bulk and at discounted prices – may start jumping in. “Big, bulk buyers are starting to come off the perch,” he said. “If we are not there yet, we are just around the corner.”Copyright © 2007 The Miami Herald, Matthew Haggman. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.