Historic Renovation Tax Incentives (Cincinnati, Avon: real estate, foreclosure, refinance)

[t45209]

Can anybody shed any light on what tax incentives exist to rehab a "historic" owner-occupied residence in Cincinnati?

My understanding is that federal tax credits are only available if the property is not owner occupied.

I'm not sure what, if anything, is available from the state.

I have heard of people applying for local tax abatements for homes that are not necessarily historic in and of themselves, nor are they in designated historic districts. Are there better incentives if you are in a historic district?

So many questions...

[Sarah Perry]

Originally Posted by t45209

Can anybody shed any light on what tax incentives exist to rehab a "historic" owner-occupied residence in Cincinnati?

My understanding is that federal tax credits are only available if the property is not owner occupied.

I'm not sure what, if anything, is available from the state.

I have heard of people applying for local tax abatements for homes that are not necessarily historic in and of themselves, nor are they in designated historic districts. Are there better incentives if you are in a historic district?

So many questions...

I know we have an expert on this topic on the board, but until he happens along, you can find some helpful information here:

Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit (http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/rehabilitation-tax-credits/federal/ - broken link)

[progmac]

not enough, in my opinions.

but one option is a loan program through hamilton county available at most major local banks. you get three percentage points off the otherwise lowest loan rate for restoration work.

also, you get a ten year tax abatement through the city on the new value of your property after restoration. so if you restore a 25,000 house and it becomes worth 150,000, you still pay taxes on it like its worth 25,000.

i can't think of anything else and neither of the programs above incentivize a true restoration over the tragic but all too common alternative of ripping out all the architectural character and redoing the house with MDF.

[deg1114]

Cincinnati has a residential tax abatement program which isn't necessarily for historic, but all homes in general:

City of Cincinnati - Residential Tax Abatement

EDIT - Sorry prog, you already mentioned it. Reading is fundamental.

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by t45209

Can anybody shed any light on what tax incentives exist to rehab a "historic" owner-occupied residence in Cincinnati?

My understanding is that federal tax credits are only available if the property is not owner occupied.

I'm not sure what, if anything, is available from the state.

I have heard of people applying for local tax abatements for homes that are not necessarily historic in and of themselves, nor are they in designated historic districts. Are there better incentives if you are in a historic district?

So many questions...

There are no meaningful historic or preservation tax incentives for renovating your own residence other than real estate tax abatements that I think others have referred to.

I think people are currently manipulating the energy tax credits to some advantage when substantial renovation is taking place. But, they are not intended to subsidize the costs of renovation.

[restorationconsultant]

The city tax abatement are beneficial and are up to 275K with 10 years and 15 year if you meet LEED certification. That is better than most cities Cincinnati's size. Actually given the cost of restoration I think the council should consider raising that tax abatement to 500K. This would incentivize restoration in the West End and other areas like Walnut Hills and Avondale with larger houses.

Ultimately the BEST thing Cincinnati could do is get rid of the Vacant Building Task Force and the VBML licence which is a real dis-incentive to restoration. Right now we have two sets of inspectors patroling the same neighborhoods. 1 for occuppied 1 for vacant. This is waste of resouces and tax dollars.

The city is passing out VBML's like candy in order to inflate their numbers of distressed properties so they qualify for more federal monies. A significant portion of those monies go for "administartive costs" (salaries). essentially our city is now a "crack addict" except they are "addicted" to federal tax dollars.

The net result of this is that some neighborhoods have 25 percent of their properties on the VBML/condemn list now thanks to the foreclosure crisis. These are homes with no real structural problems just orders and the inspector can't get a hold of anyone so they 'escalate' simple repair orders to VBML and them to condemn and eventual demo using federal funds.

Banks are reluctant to loan on any property with 'code violations' like a VBML or condemn order. Nearby neighbors often cant get equity loans or refinance because of nearby 'condemned houses' which are not condemned in the way you or I ( or most other cities) would think of what a "condemned" house should be (real structural problems) but rather simple repair orders like broken windows which were escalated to a VBML and then condemn.

The net result is the city is destroying potential historic neighborhoods to "feed' its federal money addiction.

This MUST be stopped in order to turnaround neighborhoods and rebuild the tax base of the county.