Despite difficulties many lenders lent more in 2024 to affordable housing properties. Affordable Housing Finance’s Top 25 affordable housing lenders provided $60.1 billion in permanent and construction loans in 2024 to developments that serve households up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). That’s an increase from the more than $55.7 billion in loans provided by 2023’s top lender list. Citi Community Capital retained its spot at the top of the list. It lent just over $7 billion to affordable housing properties last year, just slightly above the nearly $6.5 billion in 2023. Because of today’s uncertainties, Citi forecasts it will lend just $6 billion to affordable housing properties this year. However, if federal funding levels stabilize, Citi could easily beat that conservative forecast and build on the amount it lent in 2024, Johnson notes. Citi is also confident that the forecast will not sink lower than $6 billion for 2025. A portion of those loans are conversions of construction loans to permanent financing for projects that have already fixed their sources and uses of funds. Bank of America Community Development Banking provided a construction loan in mid-2024 and invested in tax credits for the $83.5 million project. Grants, soft financing, and a partially deferred developer fee provided much of the rest of the financing, including a Rhode Island Renewable Energy Grant and funds from the Providence Housing Trust Fund, the Rhode Island Housing Rebounds Fund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. J.P. Morgan created its Workforce Housing Solutions group to finance projects like this. It closed its first construction loan in December 2023 to finance a new community built with modular housing, now scheduled to open this summer in Los Angeles. In June 2024, Roers Cos., a national multifamily real estate investment firm, closed the financing to develop 200 new apartments at Allers Landing in Austin, Texas. J.P. Morgan provided a $29.2 million construction loan to help build Allers Landing. The $55.9 million project will include 110 workforce housing apartments reserved for households earning up to 80% of the area median income.