We're pleased to welcome Michelle Packard as the newest member of VHFA's Finance Department. Michelle was recently named our new Financial Analyst.

She's been working in the Agency's Homeownership Department on a temporary basis for two months. Before that she spent nearly two decades as Treasurer for Summit Financial Center, a Burlington mortgage company.

Four of the workshops at our upcoming Vermont Statewide Housing Conference have been approved for American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) credit.

Planning/Zoning: Regulations, Planning/Zoning: Moving from Density to Design, Cottage Development, and Federal Housing Policy will each earn planners 1.25 hours of AICP credit.

We've placed an updated "red-line" draft of the Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) online for your review. The draft contains a number of revisions proposed by VHFA that were not included in the recently-passed Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, but based on other policy changes, feedback, and program experience. This new version will be presented to the VHFA Board of Commissioners on Sept. 22.Read our Sept. 4 post about the proposed changes to the QAP.

Fitch Ratings has rated the latest VHFA bond issue AA/F1+.

Read more about the rating at the MarketWatch Web site.

Fitch Ratings is a global rating agency that provides the world's credit markets with independent credit opinions.