David A. Smith is the founder and president of Recapitalization Advisors, Inc. (Recap), a Boston-based firm specializing in the finance of existing affordable housing. Recap works for non-profit and for-profit owners and buyers, as well as government agencies including HUD and state housing finance agencies (HFAs). Currently the firm concentrates on recapitalizations linked to Section 8 expiration: mark-to-market (M2M) restructuring and especially renewed affordability transactions where the property preserves affordability through a new financial structure usually involving a complicated recapitalization. Throughout, Recap advocates for the property, fusing pursuit of long-term affordability with creative and efficient use of financial resources.

Recap converts policy into practice by doing transactions:

• 70 properties completed as a designee in the M2M demonstration program
• 45 properties individually prepaid and the delivery of about 6,000 new enhanced vouchers with no immediate involuntary displacement
• 124 preservation closings (77 refinancings, 47 sales) across 30+ states, roughly one-fifth of all LIHPRHA activity nationwide

Throughout his 25 years in affordable housing finance, David has a track record of designing and then doing innovative but rigorously sound financial transactions, including workouts, refinancings, resyndications, sales, preservation recapitalizations, prepayments, and debt restructurings. He is also recognized and sought-after for providing objective, high-quality financial, programmatic and policy analysis in existing affordable housing who has provided studies to Congress, CBO, HUD, GAO, OMB, FASB, and numerous national trade associations. Numerous times a Congressional witness, he was a principal member of the informal Senate working group that led eventually to the mark-to-market legislation enacted in 1997. Since then he has participated with HUD and various state HFA's designing preservation-related programs and strategies.

A 1975 graduate of Harvard College, David has been a prolific author and a frequent and sought-after speaker on affordable housing finance, with more than 70 published articles in real estate, valuation, and policy periodicals, a textbook, as well as being a guest lecturer at HUD-sponsored classroom and distance-learning trainings.