News
FLIPPING THE FHFA
February 3, 2011
| A proposed ruling that would have barred lending on multifamily buildings with a flip tax has been defeated. The proposed Federal Housing Finance Agency rule announced Tuesday will continue to allow purchasers of co-ops and condos that feature a flip tax to have access to federal loans from Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Housing Administration. In other news, Republicans took note and added the same flip tax law to healthcare, hoping that falls as well. |
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| REBNY prez Steve Spinola says that barring such lending would have devastating consequences for NYC’s residential sales market. When the ruling was first proposed last fall, REBNY and its membership launched an initiative in which 629 letters fighting the proposal were delivered to FHFA—more than a quarter of the total responses received. Congressman Anthony Weiner led the entire NYC House delegation, supported by the housing industry, and submitted a letter requesting that federal funds should continue to be available. “This was a case of a clearly unintended consequence that the agency wisely avoided,” he said yesterday in a statement. “Flip taxes are important and fair for co-ops in NYC. A ban would have been disastrous.” |
