Stratford Capital Group

Name: Stratford Capital Group
Address: 701 Edgewater Drive, Wakefield, MA, 01880, US
Telephone: +19785355600

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Make a positive impact in the affordable housing industry through its LIHTC syndication.

Stratford Capital Group, LLC strives to make a positive impact in the affordable housing industry through its low-income housing tax credit syndication, asset management, investor fund management, and development services. Since 2007, Stratford Capital Group has successfully originated, underwritten, sponsored, and syndicated over 300 affordable housing properties totaling over 34,000 apartment units in 38 states with a capitalized value of over $6.7 billion. In addition, the principals of Stratford Capital have a remarkable 27-year track record of working together in syndicating, asset managing, and developing affordable housing properties through the low-income housing tax credit program, making Stratford Capital Group a trusted partner for your affordable housing investments.

10/05/2026

Congress passed its biggest housing bill in thirty years. Most people haven't heard of it.

In July, while most of the housing industry's attention was on the Opportunity Zone cycle and the HUD appropriations fight, Congress quietly passed something bigger: the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

It became law July 11 — not through a presidential signature, but by taking effect after the President declined to either sign or veto it. The Senate passed it 85-5. The House passed it 358-32. The National Low Income Housing Coalition called it the first major bipartisan housing package to become law since the 1990s. Enterprise Community Partners' CEO called it the most significant housing legislation in decades.

It's over 400 pages and contains 59 separate provisions. It does not add new LIHTC dollars directly. What it does is restructure the regulatory environment LIHTC deals get built in: zoning reform incentives, environmental review streamlining, a federal task force on land-use best practices, modernized manufactured housing standards, and a new funding incentive tied to how much housing a community actually produces.

We'll be breaking down the specific provisions that matter most for LIHTC development over the next few weeks. Today, the headline: this is the most consequential piece of housing legislation most of our network hasn't fully clocked yet.

09/22/2026

More tax credits don't build anything without someone to swing the hammer.

OBBBA's permanent 12% increase to 9% LIHTC allocations means more affordable housing deals can get financed starting this year. But financing a deal and delivering a building are two different constraints — and the construction industry's labor shortage is the one policy can't allocate its way out of.

The skilled trades workforce has been aging out faster than it's being replaced for over a decade, and affordable housing developers compete for the same labor pool as every other sector of the building industry. More available credits mean more competitive pressure on an already tight market — which shows up as longer timelines and, in some regions, upward pressure on construction costs that eat into a deal's feasibility.

It's a reminder that policy wins at the federal level are necessary but not sufficient. The deals that actually break ground on schedule are the ones where a development partner has real relationships with contractors, not just capital.

09/17/2026

By 2030, roughly 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 or older. Many will try to age in place on a fixed income that doesn't move even as rent does.
One in three older households is already cost-burdened — 12.4 million households, up 2.3 million just since 2019. More than half of those, 6.7 million, are paying over half their income on housing.

Senior housing is one of the more underreported corners of the affordable housing conversation. LIHTC-financed developments with age-restricted units and on-site service coordination let seniors stay in the communities where they've spent decades — near their doctors, their families, their routines — instead of being priced out in the years they can least afford the disruption.

Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2026

09/11/2026

We pause to remember the lives lost, honor the heroes who ran toward danger, and reflect on the resilience that continues to define our nation. 🇺🇸

09/09/2026

The affordable housing building next to the coffee shop isn't an accident.

Mixed-use LIHTC development — affordable housing layered with ground-floor retail, community space, or commercial square footage — is no longer a niche structure. It's becoming a standard tool for developers trying to make deals pencil in high-cost, high-demand submarkets.

Why it works: ground-floor commercial income can supplement residential rents that are capped by LIHTC restrictions. Local zoning and land-use approvals often move faster for mixed-use projects that bring retail or services to underserved commercial corridors. Residents get walkable access to daily needs — groceries, healthcare, childcare — without a car.

The financing gets more complex, not less. Commercial space typically can't be financed with tax credit equity, so it requires a separate capital source layered alongside the LIHTC stack. One more reason developers need an equity partner who has structured more than one kind of deal.

09/02/2026

Residual income is what's left after rent and utilities — the money for groceries, transportation, medicine, everything else a household needs to function.

For renters earning under $30,000 a year, that number has fallen 48% in five years, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Rents didn't just rise. They rose faster than the cushion families had to absorb it.

This is the population LIHTC-financed housing exists to serve — rent capped by income, not by the market. It won't fix the residual income problem for every renter in America. But for a family in a Stratford-financed unit, it holds one variable steady while the rest of the economy keeps moving.

Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, State of the Nation's Housing 2026

08/28/2026

Developers thinking about bringing a new affordable housing project to us — here are the five questions we always ask first:

— What's the site, and what makes it the right location for this community?
— What does your capital stack look like, and where are the gaps you need a sponsor to fill?
— What's your track record with the state housing agency, and what's your competitive position in their QAP?
— How are you thinking about the 30-year compliance period — not just closing, but ongoing asset management?
— What does success look like for the families who will live here?

These aren't screening questions designed to filter people out. They're the questions that help us understand whether a partnership makes sense — and whether we can genuinely add value to what you're building.

If you have strong answers to most of these, we want to hear from you.

stratfordcapitalgroup.com

08/24/2026

People ask us what it actually takes to close an affordable housing deal.

The short answer: more than most people expect, and less mystery than it sounds.

A typical LIHTC transaction involves:

— A state housing agency application and competitive allocation process
— A capital stack layering tax credit equity with debt financing (often including tax-exempt bonds, HOME funds, or other soft financing)
— An equity investor (or syndicator) willing to commit capital and take on long-term compliance requirements
— A construction lender, a permanent lender, and often a bridge
— Environmental and market-rate studies, cost certifications, and compliance monitoring that runs for 30+ years
— A development team with the track record to get through all of it

The reason experienced sponsors matter: this process doesn't allow for learning on the job. Each layer has its own requirements, timelines, and failure points.

Stratford's role is to be the equity partner that makes the financing work and the deal close. Twenty-eight years means we've seen almost every combination of the above.

08/17/2026

The research on housing stability and children's outcomes is clear. We pulled it together.

The bottom line: stable housing isn't just a social good. It's one of the most powerful early interventions available for children's educational and economic trajectories.

Every affordable housing unit we help finance is doing more than providing shelter. It's providing the foundation for everything that comes after.

08/04/2026

The OBBBA expanded the LIHTC program in the most significant way in a decade.

But here's what the celebration can obscure: very few affordable housing units get built on LIHTC alone.

The typical affordable housing capital stack layers multiple financing sources — tax credit equity, federal rental assistance vouchers (Section 8 and project-based), state and local grants, HOME funds, and construction financing. Take one layer out, and deals that were penciling suddenly don't.

Right now, Congress is debating a proposed $26.7 billion cut to federal rental assistance programs — roughly a 40% reduction from current levels. That cut isn't part of the OBBBA. It's in the FY2026 appropriations process. And it remains unresolved.

If those cuts go through, the question isn't whether LIHTC will still generate credits. It's whether the deals that need rental assistance to underwrite their operating income will still be feasible at all.

The OBBBA was a historic win. What Congress does next matters just as much.

Address

701 Edgewater Drive
Wakefield, MA
01880

Telephone

+19785355600

Website

https://stratfordcapitalgroup.com/

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