Affordable Market Value (AMV)

The federal government runs what's called the Affordable Housing Program. This is overseen by the FDIC, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the same people who guarantee bank accounts. Congress set up the program in 1989 following a series of savings and loan failures earlier in the decade.

The AHP facilitates the sale of properties held by failed banks to families in the lower part of the economic spectrum (we mean poor people here, but we're trying to be fancy about it). There are not always properties available for sale, because there aren't always failed banks with properties to sell (unfortunately, there are almost always poor people who need homes).

The Affordable Market Value is a sale price set by AHP for multi-family residential buildings that come up for sale in the program. The AMV figure is set below market value for the building, theoretically making it more affordable.