The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency Tuesday priced a $79.2 million refunding sale of Series 2018C taxable housing bonds.
Sale proceeds will refund bonds issued in 2007 and 2008, according to bond documents.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is underwriter. Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC is bond counsel. Closing date is Nov. 15.
S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service and rate the bonds AA and Aa2, respectively. Both assign stable outlooks.
The bonds priced to yield between 2.817% for a June 2019 maturity to 4.721% for the 2040 maturity.
Moody’s cited “the program’s very strong security, driven by strong portfolio performance and composition,” which is now 77% insured under the Federal Housing Authority risk share program, established in 1992. It enables state housing finance agencies that meet certain financial standards to underwrite FHA multifamily loans in return for sharing the risk of losses on those loans.
Moody’s also referenced a debt-to-income ratio of roughly 1.19 times.
“We expect that the financial performance of the program and the strong portfolio characteristics will allow the program to remain strong financially,” Moody’s said.
Boston-based MassHousing has about $3.5 billion of bonds outstanding.
Created in 1966 as an independent quasi-public agency and initially capitalized by the commonwealth with a $300,000 loan, the agency provides financing for affordable housing in Massachusetts.
It raises capital by selling bonds and lends the proceeds to low- and moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners, and to developers who build or preserve affordable and/or mixed-income rental housing.
Since its inception, MassHousing has provided more than $22 billion for affordable housing.
Aaron Weitzman contributed to this story.
