Housing Financing

Orrick is one of the premier housing bond firms in the United States. Since 1985, Orrick served as bond counsel or underwriters counsel for over 2,000 housing finance transactions totaling more than $51 billion for almost half of the state housing finance agencies and for many local agencies coast to coast.

The Housing Finance Group has experience with virtually every type of financing structure used in the housing bond market, as well as with the restructuring of bond issues. Housing bond issues for which we have been bond or underwriters counsel have included a variety of features, many of which now seem commonplace, but many of which we helped create or refine, such as:

• variable rate or adjustable rate bonds
• put bonds (tender option bonds)
• convertible option bonds
• compound interest bonds
• senior/subordinate bonds, including multiple levels
• taxable/tax-exempt combinations
• low-income housing tax credits
• interest-only strips to finance downpayment assistance
• letters and lines of credit
• issuer ("captive") single family mortgage insurance
• GNMA and FNMA pass-through certificates
• FNMA collateralized security structures
• variable rate, renegotiable rate, growing equity, graduated payment and shared appreciation mortgages
• deferred payment second mortgages
• forward purchase agreements for bonds
• refunding/recycling programs
• "index option" pricing of bonds
• Financing Adjustment Factor refunding agreements
• FHA risk-sharing multifamily mortgage insurance
• "Pre-Ullman" refundings
• mortgage loan sales and bond defeasance
• tax-exempt real estate loans (private placement pass-through documentation)
• rehabilitation loans (including rehab loan advances)
• tax increment supported loans and bonds
• real estate investment trusts
• various derivative products designed to lower borrowing costs or hedge interest rate risk, including interest rate caps, swaps and swaptions

As this list demonstrates, the Housing Finance Group's breadth of experience and commitment to innovation have served, and will continue to serve, our clients very well.