Staff Accountant

Plan for affordable housing development with the Novogradac Difficult Development Area Estimator. Published by Wednesday, August 5, 2026 - 8:38 a.m. Recent insights. Novogradac today launched its Difficult Development Area Estimator, which allows affordable housing developers and investors to access data-driven insights into how changing market conditions may influence future difficult development area (DDA) designations by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Background on DDAs. DDAs are areas where the costs of land, construction and utilities are high compared with the area's median gross income, making it challenging to finance the development of affordable housing without additional incentives. DDAs are officially designated by HUD, which updates these designations annually based on factors such as small area fair market rents, income limits and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. DDA designations encourage affordable housing development in these high-cost areas by allowing developers to increase the eligible basis of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) developments by up to 30% for new construction and rehabilitation. Using the Novogradac Difficult Development Area Estimator. The new tool will help users assess how a property or area's future DDA status may change, providing invaluable information about potential eligibility for the 30% basis boost available to LIHTC properties. This tool is valuable because affordable housing developers often don't have the luxury of waiting until HUD releases its final designations to start assessing the financial viability of a given site. Furthermore, questions about whether a location may gain or lose DDA status can have a significant impact on a development's feasibility: It can affect the amount and availability of financing and other aspects of a location's development potential. The DDA estimator helps address that uncertainty by giving users an early, data-informed view they can consider as part of their site evaluation process. Along with the Novogradac Qualified Census Tract Estimator, this tool expands the information available to users reviewing potential designation changes across different markets. Purchasing a report. Reports generated through the Novogradac Difficult Development Area Estimator are available for individual HUD-defined areas, with bulk ordering options for organizations evaluating multiple markets or properties. By purchasing one or more reports created with the Novogradac Difficult Development Area Estimator, affordable housing stakeholders can better understand how potential changes in DDA status could affect development economics. Stay current on latest industry news and updates

Northampton receives NMTC funding for high school. Money will help offset the county's $4.19 million commitment to the project. JACKSON - Northampton County Schools has secured New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) funding which will help lessen the amount that the county will have to contribute to the new high school construction project. 0:24 "It's an expected net benefit of $2 million which will reduce the county's potential obligation," explained Northampton County Attorney Scott McKellar during the Board of Commissioners' meeting held here on Monday night (Jan. 5). In order to receive those funds, however, a $25,000 deposit had to be made to Self Help Ventures, the community development entity offering the NMTC funding, and $5,000 to Novogradac & Co, the CPA firm handling the transaction. McKellar explained these deposits are for upfront costs, such as legal fees, for the closing of the transaction, which is expected to be in the spring. After closing, that $30,000 total deposit will be reimbursed to the county along with the $2 million NMTC allocation. McKellar explained to the commissioners that the deadline to make the deposits was last month, and since the commissioners did not have a second meeting in December, Northampton County's Board of Education paid the deposit instead. "It was a time crunch. We had to act fast because we didn't want to lose the money," McKellar explained, noting that they reached this conclusion after discussions with the school board's attorneys. When the Northampton County Board of Education met on December 15, they unanimously approved paying the $30,000 deposit. Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins told the school board that they would use funds from the school district's capital projects account to pay the deposit. At the January 5 commissioner meeting, the board considered reimbursing the school district for making the $30,000 deposit. Commissioner Keith Edwards asked where those funds would be allocated from. County Manager Julian Phillips stated that the $30,000 reimbursement would come from the county's contingency funds. "We're talking $2 million of ultimately free money coming to the county to help fund this new high school," McKellar emphasized, and noted that there could be more potential NMTC funds in the future. "All of this is good news." Commissioner Kelvin Edwards motioned to approve the $30,000 reimbursement, and Melvetta Broadnax Taylor seconded. The vote was unanimously in favor. As previously reported by the News Herald, the Northampton Commissioners agreed in January 2025 to commit $4.19 million to the high school construction project (along with an estimated $1.2 million in sales tax reimbursement from the construction) to cover the project's funding shortfall after the district's first attempt to secure NMTC funding was unsuccessful. The agreement allowed the district to move forward and begin construction. In 2022, the district received $50 million from the state's Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund to construct a new centrally-located high school. In 2023, the state added additional money to the project in response to rising costs from inflation, bringing the total for the high school project to $62 million. The money from that grant came from the state's lottery fund. The new school will be located on Highway 305 just outside of the Jackson town limits. After breaking ground in March 2025, the building is currently under construction with a target opening date of the 2026-2027 school year. The NMTC program was created by the federal government several years ago in order to attract wealthy individual and corporate investors to low-income communities. Those investors receive tax credits in return for investing in intermediaries called "community development entities," who then invest the funds in projects in low-income areas. The US Treasury awards only a certain amount of New Markets Tax Credits each year. NMTC funds have previously been used to construct other schools in North Carolina, including a high school in Jones County.

With OZ permanence, new designations coming, Novogradac releases updated Mapping Tool. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made the opportunity zones (OZ) incentive a permanent part of the tax code and as a part of permanence, replacement sets of OZs are scheduled to be designated every 10 years, with the next set of designations to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Current OZs will keep their designation through Dec. 31, 2028, so it is expected that there will be two sets of OZs in effect for 2027 and 2028. During 2018, the chief executives of each state and territory were allowed to nominate up to 25% of their low-income communities as OZs. The term "low-income community" was a census tract where the median family income did not exceed 80% of the areawide median family income or that had a poverty rate of at least 20%. Additionally, up to 5% of the nominated tracts could be census tracts that were not low-income communities but were contiguous with a low-income community census tract, provided the tract's median family income was not more than 125% of the low-income community census tract with which it was contiguous. Nominations were submitted to the Treasury Department, which officially designated the OZs. Under OZ 2.0, the threshold for eligibility is reduced from 80% of areawide median family income to 70% and contiguous tracts may no longer be nominated. There are currently 8,764 OZ census tracts but that number is expected to drop to fewer than 7,000 under OZ 2.0. Beginning July 1, 2026, governors will be given up to 120 days to nominate 25% of their respective states' eligible census tracts to be designated as OZs. The Department of the Treasury will then have up to 60 days to complete its OZ designation process. It is expected that all census tracts designated as OZs will be known by the end of 2026. In anticipation of the new round of OZ designations scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2027, Novogradac developed and made freely available to the public a mapping tool that identifies census tracts that, based on the latest Census data (American Community Survey [ACS] 2019-2023 data), are expected to be eligible for designation as OZs. It is anticipated that the ACS 2020-2024 data, expected to be released later in 2025, will be the dataset used to determine eligibility for OZ designation, so as this information becomes available, the Novogradac OZ 2.0 Mapping Tool will be updated. The Novogradac OZ Mapping Tool also identifies census tracts that are likely to be deemed to be rural for the purpose of additional benefits available to investors for investing into rural OZs. The mapping tool can also be used to identify currently designated OZs and which of those have been identified as rural OZs under IRS Notice 2025-50, which was published Sept. 30. * Currently designated OZ census tracts (designated in 2018), * Which of the current OZ census tracts are rural OZs under IRS Notice 2025-50, * Census tracts that, based on the most recent available data, are likely to be eligible/ineligible for designation as OZs during the designation period scheduled to begin July 1, 2026, * Boundaries of nonrural areas based on the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, * Whether eligible census tracts are likely/not likely in rural areas. How to use the tool. To start, choose which of the three layers to display on the map, click on the "New Map" button in the upper left corner of the map to select. The mapping tool opens, showing expected eligibility for designation and treatment as rural. The user is given many options for identifying census tracts that are expected to be eligible. The mapping tool's search feature defaults to Location, where the user may enter an address, city, state, ZIP code or even latitude/longitude. The tool will then zoom to that level, where the user can than left click anywhere within a census tract to get additional information, including poverty data. By left clicking on "Location" the user can also select from numerous other options, such as census tract, congressional district or metro area to generate other maps. This feature is very useful to those who would like to see current OZs or potentially eligible OZs located in a particular U.S. representative's district. A second layer that can be added or viewed independently is a listing of current OZ designations which are scheduled to remain in place until Dec. 31, 2028. While most of the additional benefits under OBBBA become effective Jan. 1, 2027, the reduced 50% substantial improvement for properties located in rural OZs went into effect upon enactment. IRS Notice 2025-50 identifies 3,309 of the current OZs as rural OZs in which this reduced substantial improvement benefit is in effect. This layer for current OZs incorporates this new data so that when a user left clicks on a census tract, it will be identified as rural or not rural. The third available layer is an overlay of the USDA's Rural Business Service ineligibility map. This map corresponds to the definition of rural OZs in the OBBBA and provides a visual representation of areas that are expected to be considered rural and nonrural for purposes of additional OZ benefits. The interaction between the rural areas layer and the potential OZ eligibility map creates a few potential categories for each census tract, each of which is color coded on the mapping tool: To remove one or more layers, click the red "x" next to the layer's name in the upper right corner of the map. For additional information about a census tract, left click anywhere within the census tract. This map is for informational purposes only and is based on the American Community Survey 2019-2023 data. It is expected that Treasury will use additional data that has not yet been released to determine both census tract eligibility and whether a census tract is rural. The OZ Mapping Tool is seeing heavy traffic from users who are reporting that the functionality of the map is helping them to visualize areas that are expected to be eligible for designation so that they can begin making preparations for potential OZ projects. There are still open questions around how the rural provisions will be defined for the next set of OZ designations. The Novogradac OZ Working Group will be working diligently over the next few months to provide the Treasury with consensus recommendations concerning this and other issues. If you would like to add your voice and participate in the regulatory process, consider joining the Novogradac OZWG. For membership details contact [email protected].