FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2003

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) today announced that it has sold nearly $162 million in bonds to help provide more affordable rental housing for Michigan families and elderly people.

MSHDA sold $161,825,000 in bonds to private investors. The sale includes $36 million that will be used for the Section 236 Preservation Program, which provides for prepayment of an existing mortgage and issuance of a new mortgage to maintain the development as moderate income housing.

"This bond issue will allow us to continue to finance affordable rental housing well below the going market rate," MSHDA executive director James L. Logue III said. "This bond sale demonstrates how the Authority is working to preserve and increase the supply of affordable apartments that have rent levels within reach of our state's elderly and low to moderate- income families."

MSHDA's loans and operating expenses are financed through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds and notes to private investors, not from state tax revenues. Proceeds of the bonds and notes are loaned at below-market interest rates to developers of rental housing, and also fund home mortgages and home improvement loans. To date, the agency has financed approximately 52,000 units of rental housing throughout Michigan, for an investment of almost $1.8 billion.

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