VARbuzz

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.

As you may know by now, NAR recently rolled out plans for a proposal called “the REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative.” In the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling that will allow corporations to contribute unlimited funds into the political system, the NAR initiative is intended to maintain and cement REALTORS®' place among the most influential advocacy groups in America. 

Foreclosure shadow inventory (mortgages in 90+ days of deliquency) are a considerable factor against the recovery of the housing market. The estimates put the current inventory around 1.8 million homes equating to a nine-month supply; a six-month supply is considered healthy. CoreLogic reports that this is an 11 percent drop in this inventory from one year ago. Read the full story on Housing Wire here...

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today announced that John A. Courson, the association’s President and CEO, will be leaving the association, effective June 1, 2011.  Courson will be replaced by David H. Stevens, Assistant Secretary for Housing and Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in May.  Stevens had announced earlier that he would be resigning from his position at HUD effective March 31, 2011.