Affordable Housing Finance: Awards

This is very big news around the office and throughout B2B Publishing. The Jesse Neal Award has often been referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of business media.” Winning one award for any publication is an outstanding achievement. Affordable Housing Finance won 2 of these awards and was nominated as a finalist for the Grand Neal Award.

Congrats to Andre and his editorial team on this extremely prestigious recognition.

I think this news is particularly important for anyone who does business in affordable housing. It speaks to the commitment that is made to both readers and advertisers of Affordable Housing Finance. Those who have invested in the success of the brand over the years share in this tribute in more ways than one. Jesse himself said it best:

"I believe that the deepest satisfaction that a business editor can enjoy is realizing his success can and does affect an entire trade or industry." –Jesse H. Neal, 1955

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - March 25, 2008) - Hanley Wood's AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine, the leading publication serving the affordable housing industry, won top honors at last week's 54th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

Honored for its article, "The Trouble with HUD and How to Fix It," AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE was named a winner for the Best Subject Related Series of Articles category and a finalist for the Grand Neal Award. Additionally, AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine won an award for Best Single Issue of a Magazine.

The Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards are sponsored by American Business Media, the national organization representing business to business media.

"We are extremely honored to be recognized by American Business Media. These prestigious awards are a testament to our talented staff, our honest and groundbreaking reporting style, and our commitment to improving affordable housing," said Editor-in-Chief, Andre Shashaty. "This recognition helps publicize certain practices that demand public scrutiny and furthers our industry's mission in solving the nation's housing problems," added Shashaty.

Here is a link to the full press release.

Establishing Connections

"If you look at highly successful people, they make the same number of mistakes as others, but they recover quickly. They don’t sit around moaning about what they’ve done wrong."
- Jim McCann, 1-800- Flowers.com

Alison Rice sent me a very good article on Jim McCann from the Sunday New York Times.

It highlighted the importance of establishing a rapport with customers, doing business in a down economy and the important role that advertising played in building his business.

Jim was the keynote speaker at the MFE Conference a couple of years ago and did a fantastic job making comparisons between his business and the multifamily market. Revisiting his message both then and now seemed appropriate so I wanted to share that thought.

MFE Leadership Summit: Content Takeaways

For my own purposes I wanted to record some of the key points that were made at the 2008 MFE Leadership Summit. This is merely a summary of my notes and not in any way meant to be comprehensive. The editors of MFE will prepare a more formal recap in an upcoming edition of MFE. Please feel free to chime in with other points.

Equity Panel (Steve Lefkovits, Ann Ossewaarde, Scott Anderson, Charles Wu)

* Real value comes from good management.

* Multifamily is well positioned to hold up in the economic downturn

* Cheap money that didn't understand the market will get hurt badly

* Don't underestimate the influence of the foreign buyer - many of these deals are not highly leveraged and the decline in property values will not have a major impact.

Leadership Panel (Shabnam Mogharabi, Christy Freeland, Jeff Goldberg and Tom Toomey)

* Many of the professional managers are focused on driving revenue and not as obsessed with cost.

* In tough times/markets we should be ramping up marketing efforts instead of cutting back.

* Now is the time to push rent growth in your best properties. Renters left apartments to pursue home ownership and are now coming back with no where left to go.

Other Panel Takeaways (Technology, Green, Affordable & Accessible)

* Immigration policies need to address the realities that many markets and local economies will be facing in the coming years. We need to seek reform that is fair to both American Citizens and those who are here contributing to our economy without documentation.

* Workforce housing is an issue that we must constantly keep on the agenda both nationally and locally.

* Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be stabilizing forces in multifamily housing that will counter the departure of CMBS sources

* The fundamentals of single family housing and multifamily must be considered independently with regards to investment. The multifamily rental market remains the beneficiary of strong demographic trends and has not experienced a spike in supply.

MFE Leadership Summit: Photos

A big thanks to all of our sponsors:

American Express
Apartment Finder
Apartment Guide
Assurant Specialty Property
Bader Company
Citi Community Capital
Conservice
Intuit Real Estate Solutions
Lutron
Marcus & Millichap
On-Site.com
RealPage, Inc
Rent.com
Time Warner Cable
Verizon Enhanced Communities
Whirlpool
Yardi

We also appreciate the support of our partners at the National Multi Housing Council.

If you missed the MFE Leadership Summit come see us in Phoenix, AZ on April 7-9, 2008 for the Apartment Finance Today Conference.

MFE Leadership Summit

A fantastic time was had by all at the 10th Annual MFE Leadership Summit.

The event took place March 6-8, 2008 in Vail, CO.

More photos and info to follow.

Bruce Ward & Tom Toomey (left)
Jeff Goldberg takes 2nd at Poker (right)