Medians and averages from every 2026 California 4% and 9% tax credit application, for all deals, for deals that won and for deals that didn't. Use them to check whether your budget, developer fee and credit pricing look like what gets funded.
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The gap is the awarded median minus the not-awarded median, so a negative gap means the winners spent less.
Each bar adds up to the average total development cost per unit for that group.
Awarded bond and credit amounts come from the CDLAC and CTCAC award lists. Requested amounts and credit prices come from each application. State credit figures include only deals that requested state credit. Bond rows apply to 4% deals only.
How does your deal compare? Put your numbers into the deal screener, or send your budget over and I'll benchmark it against the deals that got funded.
From each application's 15-year pro forma. Revenue includes rent, rental subsidy and other income after vacancy. Debt service coverage is net operating income divided by must-pay debt service.
Source. Every application CTCAC posted for 2026: 4% Round 1 (122, filed February 3) and Round 2 (123, filed May 19), matched to CDLAC's final award lists of June 22 and September 1; 9% Round 1 (60, filed April 7), matched to CTCAC's final recommendations of June 22; and 9% Round 2 (64, filed July 21), matched to CTCAC's preliminary recommendations of October 6. Every figure is pulled from each project's application workbook. Each project is listed on the 2026 awards page with a link to its workbook.
Checks. Every 4% total development cost matches CTCAC's applicant list exactly. For every deal, the cost groups below add up to total development cost, and every pool's award total ties to the award list.
Median and average. The median is the middle deal; the average is the mean. Per-unit and per-square-foot figures are worked out for each deal first, then summarized, so they describe a typical deal rather than the combined totals. A deal missing a value is left out of that row only; the Deals column shows how many deals each row uses.
Cost groups. Land and acquisition is the application's total land cost and acquisition cost. Hard cost is new construction plus rehabilitation, before contingency. Soft cost is everything outside contingency, reserves and developer costs: design, engineering, construction interest and fees, permanent financing costs, legal, relocation, predevelopment interest and other costs. Developer fee is the developer overhead and profit line. Credit price is the tax credit factor the applicant entered.
Known issues in the source files. One 4% application (26-506) has line items that exceed its own subtotal by $67,977; its total is shown as reported. One 4% application (26-588) shows different tax credit equity on two tabs, and one 9% application (CA-26-115) lists sources that differ from its budget by $299,755. Six applications left square footage blank or entered a figure that cannot be right, so they are left out of the per-square-foot rows.