Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded multifamily housing revenue bonds issued by the Aurora Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Minn., for the Irongate Apartments Section 8 Assisted Project deeper into junk-bond territory.
Moody’s lowered the rating to Ba3 from Ba2 and assigned a negative outlook on the $1.87 million of bonds sold in 1996. “The downgrade to the Ba3 rating level is based on the property’s poor performance and declining occupancy rates over the past year,” the rating agency said in its report.
Debt service has declined to 1.05 times in 2010 from 1.09 time a year earlier and occupancy has fallen to 76% from 91%, according to Moody’s, which notes that one strength of the credit is the support provided for its debt-service reserve by a guaranteed investment contract.
