Housing Bonds on Block

The West Virginia Housing Development Fund today expects to price $131.2 million of housing finance bonds.

The bonds include $81.9 million of Series A refunding bonds subject to the alternative-minimum tax and $19.8 million of Series B refunding bonds that are non-AMT.

The $29.5 million Series C bonds are new-money bonds and will be used to purchase single-family mortgages.

A retail order period for the bonds was scheduled for Wednesday. The bonds are rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors ­Service and Standard & Poor’s.

Raymond James & Associates and Morgan Keegan & Co. are the underwriters. Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP is bond counsel and Kutak Rock LLP is representing the underwriters. Piper ­Jaffray & Co. is the financial adviser.

The 2010 bonds are not associated with the federal government’s New Issuance Bond Program, said Erica Boggess, the fund’s deputy director.

The fund has already issued $166 million of NIBP bonds, the full amount it is permitted under the program and its only mortgage finance bonds outstanding, ­according to bond documents.

The housing finance program was created late last year by the U.S. Treasury Department and allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to securitize new mortgage revenue bonds to be sold to the Treasury. The department in turn agreed to buy $15.3 billion of bonds from state and local housing finance agencies under the program.

The fund still needs to convert the NIBP bonds that were escrowed to the Treasury to long-term bonds before the end of the year.

The Treasury Department is considering extending the Dec. 31 deadline, but the fund will consider converting the NIBP bonds only after the 2010C bonds have been issued.

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