Standard Communities and Faring have formed a $2 billion joint venture to develop middle-income housing in California over the next 18 to 24 months. The joint venture will operate as Standard-Faring Essential Housing and will develop both ground-up apartments and the acquisition and conversion of existing apartments.

Standard-Faring Essential Housing has already created 650 units of middle income housing, representing total capitalization of more than $400 million. To create middle-income housing, the partnership is using California's public-private partnership structure.

The recent transactions all used tax-exempt bond financing provided by CSCDA Community Improvement Authority, which worked with Standard-Faring Essential Housing as project administrator. As a result, the joint venture was able to immediately lower rents on the units to make the property available to renters making 80% to 120% of the median area income.