QCT, DDA, and the 130% basis boost

Qualified Census Tracts and Difficult Development Areas are the geography that makes tax-credit deals pencil. A LIHTC project located in either one may claim a 30% increase in eligible basis — up to 130% of development costs count toward the credit calculation — which translates directly into more equity raised per unit.

• A QCT (Qualified Census Tract) is a tract where at least half of households earn under 60% of area median income, or the poverty rate is 25%+. HUD designates them annually from census data.
• A DDA (Difficult Development Area) is a metro or county where construction, land, and utility costs are high relative to incomes — places where the standard credit doesn't stretch far enough.

For anyone reading a market: the share of a county's pipeline sitting in boost-eligible tracts is a hard, public fact about how favorable the local tax-credit math is. A year-15 property in a QCT is a stronger resyndication candidate, all else equal, because the next allocation raises more equity against the same costs.

Both designations are published by HUD and carried per-property in the public LIHTC database, which is where our per-property flags and county-level boost shares come from. Designations change year to year — a property's flag reflects the current designation of its location, not necessarily the designation in effect when it was originally financed.