The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) made their much anticipated announcement of the 2010 conditional low-income housing tax credit reservations yesterday. It was a very competitive round. According to information on PHFA’s website, 28 projects received conditional awards out of the 83 projects that submitted applications to receive credits in the 2010 funding round. PHFA received applications for over $74 million of credits, however only $23.7 million of credits are available for 2010. There was no stimulus funding available for the 2010 round, which in addition to an average equity pay-in of 71 cents, made for the fewest number of projects funded in the past few years. No due date has been announced at this time for the 2011 round applications, however it is anticipated to be between December 2010 and January 2011.

On June 24, 2010, the Senate voted against passing H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, also known as the tax extenders bill.  This bill would have extended, among other things, the Section 1602 low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) exchange program through 2010. This is a loss to the affordable housing community, as it does not allow state housing finance agencies the option to exchange tax credits for cash, which could then be used to fund projects that cannot secure equity investors in 2010. This bill also would have made Gulf Opportunity Zone LIHTCs and Disaster LIHTCs eligible for the exchange program.  It is not known at this time if the Senate will reconsider H.R. 4213.