Our President, Jenny DeSilva, and Vice President of Compliance and Consulting Services, Brian Gamble, were fortunate to attend RealWorld 2025™ last week in Las Vegas. RealPage’s user conference brings together staff, current or prospective users, and leading industry experts (to include Ms. DeSilva) to discuss how changes in the property management industry guide enhancements that vendors like RealPage make to software products used by their clients every day.
The affordable housing sessions kicked off with Kris Cook, CEO of NAHMA, speaking on the Trends and Regulatory Changes Impacting Affordable Housing in 2025 and Beyond. Kris walked through the applicable changes affecting the industry, from laws and executive orders to the affordable real estate market. Additionally, she shared from a recent housing study that analyzes housing affordability. Below are six high-level takeaways from her session:
- The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: The State of the Nation’s Housing 2025:
- Renter Household Growth is outpacing construction of new apartments. Despite 608,000 new units coming online in 2024 – the most in nearly forty years – there are more households looking to rent than there are available units. This trend continued through early 2025. It’s also worth noting that this is a general trend, not specific to affordable housing, where demand and supply see an even wider difference, with no single state having a sufficient number of affordable housing units per the study.
- The study also points out that lower-income renters have less money left over after paying for housing than any time in the last 20 years, with households earning under $30,000 annually seeing a 55% reduction in available income after paying rent when compared with the same household in 2001.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill
- The bill permanently increases 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocations by 12%. This means that states can theoretically grant more tax credit awards from year to year.
- The bill also reduced the Private Activity Bond Test from 50% to 25%. This means that developers do not have to be as reliant on a strained bond market to make their proposed projects work.
- While the above changes are exciting in terms of creation of new LIHTC developments, much remains to be seen with regard to the proposed elimination of the HOME program and Green Energy tax credits.
- Executive Order – Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets (July 24, 2025)
- The Executive Order has a section dedicated to HHS and HUD programs, instructing the Secretaries of these agencies to “take appropriate actions to increase accountability in their provision of, and grants awarded for, homelessness assistance and transitional living programs… [to] include, to the extent permitted by law, ending support for “housing first” policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.” Many affordable housing professionals wonder if this means an inevitable end to the homeless preference- as basis for the preference appears to conflict with the spirit of this latest Executive Order. Stay tuned to hear whether that is the case, pending guidance from HUD.
- Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plans (AFHMPs)
- Previously, HUD requested comments on a recission of the AFHMP requirements. NAHMA provided Public Comment – as did DeSilva Housing Group – arguing that the current form and process should be revised and improved upon, rather than eliminated.
- HOTMA draft forms have been published to the Multifamily Drafting Table
- It is worth noting that these forms have not been sent to the Federal Register, and therefore the process for their approval has not officially begun.
- There are three current rules being considered within the Office of Management and Budget, which will be subject to public comment if the OMB decides to move forward with them:
- Changing the rules and process for assisting mixed status households
- Revising implementation standards for Disparate Impact
- Adding work requirements to federal housing programs.
We’re unable to speak to the specifics of these potential rules until the proposed rules are released for comment, however, these signal what the OMB is considering at this time.
Jenny DeSilva participated in a panel discussion titled Unlocking Affordable Housing: Insights, Strategies, and Solutions. The panel was designed as a gameshow, fielding audience questions for the full hour. Jenny answered questions to thunderous applause on HOTMA, appropriate timelines for implementing new passbook rates, and best practices for documenting tenant files.
We’re grateful for our nearly 30-year relationship with RealPage, and we’re excited to see what they have in store in the future!
