Thursday, July 30, 2009

LAST DAY to take the Division of Housing Customer Survey

July 31 is the last day to take the Division of Housing's customer survey.

It is a short survey, so please be sure to click on the link and fill out the survey. We'd like to know what you think.

Click here for the survey: https://dola.colorado.gov/survey/doh_cs

The 90-day Foreclosure Deferment Program begins August 1

The foreclosure "timeout" program granting an extended foreclosure process to qualified borrowers begins on August 1. Please see the Division of Housing's web page on the program for more information.

Parts 3 and 4 of the Short Sale video series now posted

The last two parts of the short video series on real estate short sales has been posted to the Division's YouTube page. The YouTube page now also includes a brief overview of recent foreclosure trends and other videos.

Pat Coyle appointed Director of the Colorado Division of Housing

See Q and A with Coyle at InsideRealEstateNews.com

(DENVER, CO) - The Colorado Department of Local Affairs announced today that Patrick Coyle has been appointed Director of the Department’s Division of Housing, and that David Zucker has been appointed to the State Housing Board.

Coyle is Housing Director with Denver’s Road Home at the City and County of Denver’s Department of Human Services. Coyle previously worked at the Division of Housing, first as manager of the Main Street Redevelopment Program in the eighties, and later as head of real estate development for the Division from 1994 to 2005. Coyle also served in the Governor’s Office of Economic development under Governor Roy Romer.

“It is great that Pat has decided to return to DOLA.” said Susan Kirkpatrick, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. “He comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and experience that will certainly add value to the division and the department.”

Coyle noted that many new developments in housing have arisen since he left in 2005. “It will be very interesting to be back at the Division given the current housing landscape,” Coyle said. “Issues like stimulus funds, foreclosures, and the national recession will all offer plenty of new challenges to address immediately.”

Denver’s Road Home has put in place plans for Coyle’s departure. “The State of Colorado is fortunate to have the talents and expertise that Pat Coyle has in the arena of housing. I can think of nobody who would be a better candidate for this position. Denver’s Road Home has been fortunate to have benefitted from Pat Coyle’s expertise and we look forward to working with him more in this new capacity. Denver’s Road Home will be working with Pat Coyle over the next month to ensure a seamless transition into his new role” said Jamie Van Leeuwen, Director of Denver’s Road Home

Developer David Zucker appointed to Colorado State Housing Board

The Department of Local Affairs has announced that real estate developer David Zucker has been appointed to the Colorado State Housing Board. Zucker joins the board as a representative from Colorado’s 6th Congressional District

Zucker arrived in Denver in 1990. The first condo project on which he worked was the Lofts over the Wynkoop Brewery where he lived until 1995. Since the Wynkoop, Zucker has been involved in historic conversions like the Downtown Denver and Downtown San Diego Courtyards by Marriott which utilized the Historic Investment Tax Credit. In Denver, Zucker was one of the first developers to work through, develop and sell deed-restricted, for-sale units at Silver State Lofts, a program that has become codified in the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.

Zucker received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1990. He is chairman of the board of directors of community jazz station KUVO and is Co-Chair of the Downtown Denver Partnership's Housing Council. He sits on the University of Denver's Burns Real Estate Research Council where he is co-chair of the school's Affordable Housing Conference. He has an appointment to the Mayor's Task Force on Affordable Housing and is LEED-AP. Zucker received the Affordable Housing Leader of the Year Award for 2006 from the Denver chapter of the Enterprise Foundation.

Theophilus Gregory is a vice president with the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs, and Sally Hatcher is President and founder of Precision Photonics in Boulder.

The Colorado State Housing Board advises the Department of Local Affairs’ Division of Housing on real estate development projects and grantmaking.


See also this article.

Metro Denver apartment vacancies rise to 4-year high

Metro Denver apartment vacancies rise to 4-year high

Click here for sample data.

Apartment vacancy rates rose in the Denver Metro for the sixth quarter in a row, and are now at their highest level in four years. According to a report released Thursday by the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Department of Local Affairs' Division of Housing, vacancy rates during the second quarter of 2009 increased to 9.0 percent from last year's second quarter rate of 6.2 percent. Vacancies are at their highest rate since they reached 9.3 percent during the first quarter of 2005.

The vacancy rate was 8.4 percent during the first quarter of this year.

Vacancies have been rising each quarter since the first quarter of 2008. Vacancies peaked at 13.1 percent during the first half of 2003, eventually fell to 5.3 percent during the third quarter of 2007, and have generally increased since.

Arapahoe County reported the highest vacancy rate of 10.7 percent, and Douglas County reported the lowest rate at 5.8 percent. All counties except Douglas County reported increases in vacancies when compared to the second quarter of last year. Vacancy rates for all counties surveyed were: Adams, 8.5 percent; Arapahoe, 10.7 percent; Boulder/Broomfield, 7.2 percent; Denver, 9.8 percent; Douglas, 5.8 percent; and Jefferson, 7.2 percent.

In general, a vacancy rate of 5 percent is considered the "equilibrium" rate. Rates below 5 percent indicate tight markets.

During the second quarter of 2009, average rents fell to $870.37 when compared to $886.14 from the second quarter of last year. Average rents are at their lowest since the first quarter of 2008 when they were $861.26.

When compared to the second quarter of 2008, Only the Boulder/Broomfield area reported an increase in overall average rents. Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties all reported decreases in overall average rents.

The highest average rent was reported in Douglas County at $999.55, and the lowest was reported in Jefferson County at $812.41. Average rents for all counties were: Adams, $884.23; Arapahoe, $828.46; Boulder/Broomfield, $967.19; Denver, $881.37; Douglas, $999.55; and Jefferson, $812.41.

The linked data is only the most basic information. For the full report containing hundreds of pages of detailed rental housing data, please visit the Apartment Association of Metro Denver: http://www.aamdhq.org/

Monday, July 27, 2009

Tonight: Facing the Mortgage Crisis on PBS

Be sure to tune in to tonight's segments on Facing the Mortgage Crisis tonight on Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel 6 in Denver). There will be a phone bank to take calls from those with questions about mortgages and foreclosures.

Also, 9News will feature interviews on related topics during their evening news broadcasts.

Short Sales, Part 2 now posted

The second part of our short sale video series is now posted. Please see our YouTube channel for future updates.

Friday, July 24, 2009

New Renter's Guide 2009-2010 now available

In a partnership with the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, we've produced a Renter's Guide for 2009-2010 that summarizes the basics of what tenants need to know before renting a property. It also provides the basics of the new Warranty of Habitability law. This is only a summary of course, so detailed legal questions should be directed to an attorney.

Click here for the Guide.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Private Activity Bonds Workshop - sign up now

Message from Karen Harkin regarding Private Activity Bonds:

[Click here for the brochure.]

It is time once again for our annual Private Activity Bond workshops.
Many you have attended these in the past but with the disruption in the
bond market, you may find it valuable to attend one of these sessions
again. There are some new portions of the presentation, including some
ARRA updates and an opportunity to partner with CHFA on its
Statewide Mortgage Credit Certificate Program.

Private Activity Bonds are an extremely valuable asset to any
municipality. We hope that you will encourage your community leaders,
Town and/or City Council Members, County Commissioners, to take time to
discuss what is the highest and best use of this resource for 2009.
And, if after the discussion, your leaders still decide that
relinquishing the PAB allocation to the Statewide Balance is the
appropriate action, then at least a decision was made, as opposed to not
taking any action on the allocation and allowing it to return to the
Statewide Balance by default.

To reach some of our other locations with direct allocations, we are
changing the workshop locations: Greeley, for our northern partners;
Pueblo for our southern partners; and downtown Denver for the front
range partners. I, as well as Jaime Gomez at CHFA, are also able to
meet with you personally, with or without your Council for discussion
about PAB specifically in your community.

If you are unable to attend these workshops and you (or someone you
know) would like more general information about Private Activity Bonds,
you may consider attending the Housing Colorado NOW! Conference in
October in Breckenridge. Not only will you get the benefit of attending
another PAB workshop, you will have the opportunity to chose from 31
other workshops plus some excellent speakers and networking
opportunities while at the conference. If you have never attended this
conference, it is the premier affordable housing conference in the Rocky
Mountain region. Check it out at
http://www.housingcolorado.org/?section=Conference An excellent value
for limited budgets.

Please refer to the brochure for more information and RSVP
contacts. I hope to see you there. Please feel free to call or email
me at 303-297-7327 or [email protected] .

Regards,
Karen

O'Kelly joins CDOH as new NSP specialist

Alison O'Kelly has joined the Colorado Division of Housing as the new Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Specialist. Alison will be implementing the new $37.9 million NSP program created through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act that provides for the acquisition of foreclosed properties for rehabilitation, sale or rental. She will be providing consultative services and technical assistance, establishing and administering timelines, managing contracts, and tracking program activities and compliance. Contact info follows:

Alison O'Kelly
NSP Program Specialist
Colorado Department of Local Affairs,
Division of Housing
1313 Sherman St., Room 518
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-866-3409
Fax: 303-866-4077
[email protected]
www.DOLA.Colorado.gov

New Training: Conserving and Creating Resources

Rural Community
Assistance Corporation presents

[The Delta County Independent has the story.]

Conserving and Creating Resources

Sponsored in part by DOLA’s Division of Housing:

Topics:

Know what your resources are

How to read and understand financial statements

How to ensure your agency has an accurate budget, cash flow
statement and up-to-date financials for board review and discussion

What is an audit and why do you need one?

What kind of questions should you be asking? What should the board be asking?

Know what your resource needs are

What are all your existing resources?

What are your organization’s overall resource needs?

What is the resource excess/ shortfall?

And more… (click for brochure)

Monday, July 13, 2009

Facing the Mortgage Crisis on PBS

Rocky Mountain PBS has launched a summer campaign to draw attention to the benefits of working with the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline. DOLA has partnered with PBS on this to ensure that they have the best foreclosure data and that the Hotline's services are reaching as large an audience as possible.

You can find the campaign's home page here, or you can simply visit the home page for Rocky Mountain PBS and click on the Facing the Mortgage Crisis banner.

PBS has produced a series of short videos as part of the program. Here is one explaining housing counseling:

Thursday, July 9, 2009

New Training: Private Activity Bonds for Local Officials

August 4, 2009
9am - Noon
Pueblo

August 5, 2009
9am - Noon
Greeley

August TBD, 2009
9am - Noon
Denver Metro

This class is designed for local officials who want to learn how to best utilize Private Activity
Bond financing to benefit their communities, especially given all the recent changes in our economy and the bond market.

Did you know that this year, 47 cities & counties received direct allocations of Private Activity Bond authority worth over $206 million? And that last year, out of the $187 million given to local governments, $34 million was returned to the Statewide Balance? Make sure that your community is taking full advantage of this valuable resource!

For local governments that do not receive a direct allocation of PABs, did you know that you can apply for it from the Statewide Balance through Colorado’s Department of Local Affairs? Come learn about the potential projects and programs that you could provide to your community!

Presenters will include experts in Private Activity Bonds from Colorado’s Department of Local Affairs, Division of Housing; the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority and bond attorneys from Kutak Rock, LLP &/or Sherman & Howard, LLC. Best of all, there will be ample time to get your specific questions answered by the presenters.

Click here for brochure.

Upcoming First Time Homebuyer Classes

Brothers Redevelopment

Spanish: July 18, 9am-2pm
English: July 25, 9am-2pm
For more inforation: 303-202-6340

Colorado Housing Assistance Corporation (CHAC)
July 8 5:30 - 9:30 Englewood
July 11 9:00 - 2:00 Aurora
July 16 5:30 - 9:30 Aurora
July 22 5:30 - 9:30 Denver - CHAC
for more information: (303) 572-9445

Thursday, July 2, 2009

House Bill 1276 and the Foreclosure Deferment program

House Bill 09-1276, passed during the 2009 legislative session and signed by the Governor, requires that the Colorado Division of Housing provide a document for the purposes of informing homeowners of the possibility of obtaining a foreclosure deferment.Please see our foreclosure deferment page for more information on the posting notice and the program.

Also, below you will find a slideshow that explains the legislation and the program:

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

New NSP2 posting

DOLA has posted Summary of Application and Budget summary documents for Colorado's proposed NSP 2 application on the Division of Housing web pages, www.dola.colorado.gov/cdh/index.html. The documents will be available for public review and comment until July 8th, 2009. If you have comments or questions, please contact [email protected].

Announcement of Application for Funds American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

LEGAL NOTICE
Announcement of Application for Funds
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2

The State Of Colorado will submit an application to HUD for funds under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 on or about 7/14/09. The application currently proposes to include acquisition, rehabilitation, and resale of foreclosed properties and other activities to support stability. The proposed fund request and target areas include: Denver $10,000,000; Englewood $1,400,000; Longmont $1,995,000; Greeley $3,030,000; Milliken $1,126,000; El Paso County (Fountain) $29,000,000; Pueblo $2,425,000; Pueblo County $966,000; Grand County $1,000,000; Bent-Crowley-Otero County $1,000,000; and Walsenburg $ 1,395,000.

More detailed information is available at the Colorado Department of Local Affairs website: www.dola.colorado.gov/ARRA/nsp.html. All interested parties are invited to submit comments no later than 7/9/09 to Lynn Shine, [email protected].

Recent Private Activity Bond Allocations

The Department of Local Affairs, in accordance with the provisions of C.R.S. 24-32-1711, is reallocating $9,000,000 from the 2009 Private Activity Bond Statewide Balance to Crowley County for the purpose of financing exempt facility bonds on behalf of Kingston Energy Development LLC:

Crowley County has been awarded $9,000,000 of Private Activity Bonds to finance the construction of a waste-to-energy/pollution abatement facility on a cattle feedyard in Ordway. The Ordway Feedyard generates over 30,000 tons of manure annually, which is scrapped out of the pens on a daily basis and left in large piles waiting to be trucked off-site and spread over crop land. The traffic, dust, odor and air pollution it generates is a significant burden to the area.

Kingston Energy would use PAB financing to install Agricultural Waste Solution’s "Gas Production Module," which is a closed loop, low emissions system designed to transform the waste stream into clean biosyngas, water, and ash. The ash captures many of the nutrients from the manure, thereby reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients which can overburden soil and runoff into surface and ground waters. Both the ash and the wastewater (after further processing) can be used as fertilizer. They may use taxable bonds &/or cash equity to finance the rest of the facility. The "Liquid Fuel Module" will convert the biosyngas into renewable diesel fuel, which will be sold to the marketplace through Tenaska Biofuels LLC in Omaha, NE.



The Department of Local Affairs, in accordance with the provisions of C.R.S. 24-32-1711, is reallocating $7,120,080 from the 2009 Private Activity Bond Statewide Balance to Grand County for the purpose of providing mortgage credit certificates:

Grand County has been awarded an allocation of PABs for Mortgage Credit Certificates (MCC) for use in both Grand and Routt Counties. Instead of issuing bonds, they would elect to use the bond allocation as MCCs for qualified first-time homebuyers. Buyers would be able to take 20% of their interest payments as a tax credit instead of as a tax deduction (the remaining 80% would be deductable). Grand County first received an allocation of PABs for their MCC program in 2001, then again in 2003 and in 2006. The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) has administered the program since its inception, and will continue to administer it.

New updates to the Division of Housing web site

There are a variety of new documents that have been posted on the web site. Please have a look to see what new updates might be helpful to you:

Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER)
Available for public review and comment June 30-July 15
Click here to review the CAPER

NSP 2 - Announcement of Application for Funding
Application Summary
Budget Summary Spreadsheet

These documents are posted for public review and comment until July 8th.

NOTICE! 2009 Landlord Payment Bulletin
click HERE for information on July payment dates

Consolidated Plan Annual Action Plan
Final version of the 2009-2010 Plan as submitted to HUD.

REVISED NSP Action Plan
Updated as of 6/19/2009

Latest Case-Shiller housing data: Denver is least bad

Denver comes in again as the least bad city for housing price declines. Out of 20 cities, Denver reported the smallest drop with 4.9 percent. Dallas came in second with a 5 percent drop, and Phoenix was the worst with a 35.3 percent drop.

Here is a PDF of the report.