Briefs

Cushman & Wakefield Acquires Multi Housing Advisors

Cushman & Wakefield, New York, acquired Multi Housing Advisors, Atlanta.

The combined firms, with nearly $3 billion in transactions, captured 20 percent of 2015 southeast multifamily sales.

MHA cofounders Josh Goldfarb and Marc Robinson will serve as Cushman’s U.S. multifamily leaders, working from Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. Other MHA leaders include Jimmy Adams in Birmingham, Ala., Jordan McCarley in Charlotte and Tyler Averitt and Robert Stickel in Atlanta. They join Cushman’s existing southeast multifamily group led by Chris Spain, Michael Kemether and Brandon Whitesell.

MHA has produced 55 percent average sales growth and transaction volume totaling more than $5.9 billion in the past five years, with 70 percent of its business from recurring clients. Since its founding, MHA has sold more than 140,000 multifamily units through more than 850 individual transactions. The firm brings 13 brokerage professionals and a staff of 35 to Cushman & Wakefield and adds on-the-ground multifamily capabilities with offices in Birmingham and Charlotte.

HUD Proposes Re-Calculating Rental Subsidies in Some Areas

HUD, Washington, D.C., proposed a new method to recalculate rental subsidies to expand options for households to live in “higher opportunity neighborhoods”–those with better housing and better schools.

For the next 60 days, HUD will accept public comment on a proposal to change the geography it uses to calculate Fair Market Rents. In these areas, HUD proposes transitioning from a metropolitan area-wide approach to setting FMRs down to the ZIP code level to expand families’ options for living in lower poverty neighborhoods.

HUD said this “Small Area Fair Market Rent” approach would affect 31 metropolitan areas.

“In some areas of the country, the Housing Choice Voucher Program offers little choice to families about where they can live, limiting opportunities for themselves and their children,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “We propose to use a tested new approach that would offer these households greater choice to move into higher opportunity neighborhoods with better housing, better schools and higher paying jobs.”

HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Katherine O’Regan cited evidence that calculating rental subsidies at the ZIP code level “is a more effective way of promoting choice in concentrated rental markets [than using metro-wide data].”