VARbuzz

People are still not getting it, so NAR has put out yet another debunking of the “3.8% real estate tax” myth that continues to circulate.

This one is a one-pager that explains (again) what this Medicare capital gains tax is, and why it hardly ever will apply to real estate:

The 3.8% tax will NEVER be collected as a transfer tax on real estate of any type, so you’ll NEVER pay this tax at the time that you purchase a home or other investment

You’ll NEVER pay this tax at settlement when you sell your home or investment property.  Any capital gain you realize at settlement is just one component of that year’s gross income.

Although there are still concerns about commercial mortgages coming due and adversely impacting the market, two reports highlight the positive side of the commercial scene.

First, Morningstar looked at real estate mutual funds. Turns out they have an annualized return of 33 percent over the past three years, and have attracted almost $3 billion in new investment, while other industry groups have seen investors pulling out. (The company also notes that the commercial market wasn’t nearly as overbuilt the way homes were, so it wasn’t hit as hard by the housing crisis.)

You only have till August 1 to nominate yourself or someone you know to be Virginia’s 2012 Realtor^® of the Year, one of the highest honors a Virginia Realtor^® can receive.

Here’s what it takes to be Realtor^® of the Year, beyond making “proven contributions to the real estate industry through both personal and professional achievement and outstanding volunteerism.”

Here’s a beautiful example of how we work behind the scenes for you. For a long time, landlords have been upset that, if tenants leave without paying their water bills, the public water company demands the money from the landlord — and can put a lien on the house.

Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Of course, the local governments argue that they’re limited by law as to how much of a security deposit they can request from a tenant. They’re getting stuck with the leftover bill, and you can’t really put a lien on some college kid’s 1998 Dodge.

VAR to the rescue.

Analysts at Barclay’s have determined that, depending on a variety of conditions, the nation’s housing supply could reach “normal” levels in two, three, our four years.

That’s per a story in HousingWire.

So you’ve got your standard house that we all know and love: Bricks, wooden frame, the usual. And you’ve got your mobile home (hint: check for wheels). But there are a bunch of other species of the American homestead, and Arlington Realtor/blogger Genevieve Concannon wants to be sure you know the difference.

Much has been made of the potential — somehow — of the Federal Housing Administration running out of money. After all, it had to help bail out all those banks when the Great Recession started.

Contrary to what you may have heard, says NAR, FHA isn’t in danger of going under. But — like a lot of other rumors in an election year — this one keeps circulating.

So…

“There has been considerable coverage in the media about the health of FHA’s reserves, with some stories speculating whether FHA will need a bailout by Congress. To address these issues and also explain the premium increase, which affect home buyers wanting to use FHA-backed financing, we produced this short video on the topic.”

Here ya go:

Almost 23% of U.S. residential properties with a mortgage are underwater, and another 3% are “near negative” (have less than five percent equity).

In Virginia, the numbers are slightly higher than the national average; about 30% of Virginia’s homes are underwater or close to it.

This comes from the latest negative equity report from CoreLogic.

Some other interesting tidbits:

 The board of the Arizona Association of Realtors voted to acquire the state’s largest MLS, the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc. (ARMLS), for $4.75 million. The plan is to work with the state’s 13 other MLSs to create a single entity covering the entire state: the Arizona Multiple MLS. (Yes, that’s “Arizona Multiple Multiple Listing Service.”)

Much of the work is already done, at least from an information point of view, thanks to an earlier data-sharing agreement between ARMLS and the MLS’s run by the Santa Cruz and Tucson associations. Together, the three systems cover about 80 percent of properties in Arizona.

CoStar Group, a Washington D.C.-based commercial real estate research firm, is set to acquire LoopNet, a San Francisco-based commercial real estate marketing firm for $860 million. CoStar operates the largest commercial real estate marketing database, with this merger potentially boosting CoStar's subscribers to 160,000 and putting its active listings at 2 million. LoopNet.com is the largest and most heavily trafficked commercial marketplace, with 4.8 million registered members. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2011. First quarter earnings put the combined revenue projections at approximately $321 million annually.