Just though a few Wilmington Real Estate States (encompassing the tri-county region) would be in order.
There are currentely 5056 active listings on the market. In the past 30 days, 358 listings have gone to pending (under contract) status. And year to date the we have seen 1,390 homes sold. Things are picking up and summer is in full swing!
The first ever Battle of the Bands was held as part of the Carolina Beach Boardwalk Makeover Program on Saturday.
Six groups competed in the first of three preliminary rounds.
Area music professionals will choose the best two groups to compete in the finals and have the chance to win several prizes.
“We have some great prizes… 20 hours of studio time from Cape Fear Studios, gift certificates from Varno Equipment, The Beat magazine has sponsored, as well as Modern Music has given some gift certificates,” said Brett Keeler of the CBBMP.
The Carolina Beach Boardwalk Makeover Program is a campaign to improve the boardwalk area with entertainment events, and construction projects.
A Wilmington company called icwifi.net provides high-speed wireless internet access to boaters. Now checking the forecast on the water is just a click away.
Year round, boats stroll up and down the Intracoastal Waterway in Wrightsville Beach. Many have laptops on board, but couldn't get a connection…until icwifi.net came along.
"If you're out in the water and you don't have a good radar and you've got a storm coming and you're deciding do you go in for the night, or do you stay out hooked up for the rest of the night, you have to be able to see that and with icwifi, we'll allow you to do that,” said marketing manager Anna Hoggard.
If you're in the Motts or Banks channels of the ICW, you're in the coverage zone. When you click on the internet, a screen will pop up prompting you to sign up for icwifi.
The service costs $3 per day, $10 per week, or $30 per month.
You'll get a code you'll punch in to surf the web. "You can be in your house with the same code, and get on your boat with your laptop and go over to Masonboro Island and get on the internet there, so you can sit on the beach, sit on the dock, or sit on the porch," Hoggard explained.
. People on shore can use the connection too, as icwifi.net has several antennas along the ICW like on top of Mott's Channel Seafood.
"It's good reliable high speed internet, we use it everyday,” said Motts’ manager Tom Franz who uses the connection to check the weather so he knows when to expect boats coming in with fresh seafood.
The company just started in March. In the coming months, icwifi.net hopes to expand their service to the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington, as far south as Myrtle Beach, and north to Morehead City.
U.S. mortgage rates fell in the latest week, trekking closer to a record low set last month. Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.82 percent for the week ending May 21, down from the previous week's 4.86 percent, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac. [FRE0.78-0.02(-2.5%)]
Three weeks earlier, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage equaled the record low of 4.78 percent set in the week ending April 2, which was the lowest since Freddie Mac started the Primary Mortgage Market Survey in 1971.
"Long-term fixed-rate mortgage rates have remained below 5.0 percent for the past 10 weeks as the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve act to keep interest rates low through security purchases," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.
The U.S. government has embarked on an aggressive plan to bring mortgage rates down to levels that will spur demand and help the hard-hit housing market begin to recover.
Thirty-year mortgage rates had mostly been on a downward trend since the Fed — the U.S. central bank—unveiled a plan in late November to buy mortgage-backed debt .
The Federal Reserve has set a goal to buy up to $1.25 trillion of agency MBS, $300 billion of Treasuries and $200 billion of agency debt in 2009. The purchases are part of efforts to lower borrowing costs.
Leif Thomsen, CEO of Mortgage Master, in Walpole, Massachusetts, said his main message to people looking to get a mortgage is to be patient. "It boils down to simple supply and demand - there are hundreds of thousands of people applying and only so many people to field the requests so nothing is moving quickly," he said.
"We have seen encouraging signs of the purchase market coming back, but we have to remember that as long as we continue to see people losing their jobs, the housing market cannot completely recover," he said.
The battered U.S. housing market, which is in the midst of its worst downturn since the Great Depression, is both the source of and a major casualty of the credit crisis.
A recovery for the market could portend a turnaround for the United States, the world's largest economy.
Low interest rates on mortgages are pivotal for the U.S. housing market this spring, the peak home buying season. And low mortgage rates have and should continue to spur demand for home refinancing loans.
Lower monthly payments provide a bit of relief to strapped consumers amid rising unemployment and a shrinking economy. The low rates so far have had little to no impact on demand for loans to purchase homes.
But the Fed hopes lower interest rates on mortgages will change that.
Other Rates Mixed
Freddie Mac said the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.50 percent in the latest week, down from 4.52 percent the prior week.
One-year adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, rose to an average of 4.82 percent from 4.71 percent last week.
Freddie Mac said the "5/1" ARM, set at a fixed rate for five years and adjustable each following year, averaged 4.79 percent, compared with 4.82 percent a week earlier.
A year ago, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 5.98 percent, 15-year mortgages were at 5.55 percent and the one-year ARM was at 5.24 percent. A year ago, the 5/1 ARM averaged 5.61 percent.
Lenders charged an average of 0.7 percent in fees and points on 30-year mortgages, up from 0.6 percent the previous week, while they charged an average 0.7 percent in fees and points on 15-year mortgages, up from 0.6 percent the previous week.
The 5/1 ARM fees and points were 0.6 percent, unchanged from the previous week. The one-year ARM fees and points were 0.6 percent, unchanged from the previous week.
Freddie Mac and its larger sibling, Fannie Mae, [FNM0.76-0.01(-1.3%)] were placed under government conservatorship in early September.
Freddie Mac is a mortgage finance company chartered by Congress to buy mortgages from lenders and package them into securities to sell to investors or to hold in its own portfolio.
U.S. mortgage rates fell in the latest week, trekking closer to a record low set last month. Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.82 percent for the week ending May 21, down from the previous week's 4.86 percent, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac. [FRE0.78-0.02(-2.5%)]
Three weeks earlier, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage equaled the record low of 4.78 percent set in the week ending April 2, which was the lowest since Freddie Mac started the Primary Mortgage Market Survey in 1971.
"Long-term fixed-rate mortgage rates have remained below 5.0 percent for the past 10 weeks as the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve act to keep interest rates low through security purchases," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.
The U.S. government has embarked on an aggressive plan to bring mortgage rates down to levels that will spur demand and help the hard-hit housing market begin to recover.
Thirty-year mortgage rates had mostly been on a downward trend since the Fed — the U.S. central bank—unveiled a plan in late November to buy mortgage-backed debt .
The Federal Reserve has set a goal to buy up to $1.25 trillion of agency MBS, $300 billion of Treasuries and $200 billion of agency debt in 2009. The purchases are part of efforts to lower borrowing costs.
Leif Thomsen, CEO of Mortgage Master, in Walpole, Massachusetts, said his main message to people looking to get a mortgage is to be patient. "It boils down to simple supply and demand - there are hundreds of thousands of people applying and only so many people to field the requests so nothing is moving quickly," he said.
"We have seen encouraging signs of the purchase market coming back, but we have to remember that as long as we continue to see people losing their jobs, the housing market cannot completely recover," he said.
The battered U.S. housing market, which is in the midst of its worst downturn since the Great Depression, is both the source of and a major casualty of the credit crisis.
A recovery for the market could portend a turnaround for the United States, the world's largest economy.
Low interest rates on mortgages are pivotal for the U.S. housing market this spring, the peak home buying season. And low mortgage rates have and should continue to spur demand for home refinancing loans.
Lower monthly payments provide a bit of relief to strapped consumers amid rising unemployment and a shrinking economy. The low rates so far have had little to no impact on demand for loans to purchase homes.
But the Fed hopes lower interest rates on mortgages will change that.
Other Rates Mixed
Freddie Mac said the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.50 percent in the latest week, down from 4.52 percent the prior week.
One-year adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, rose to an average of 4.82 percent from 4.71 percent last week.
Freddie Mac said the "5/1" ARM, set at a fixed rate for five years and adjustable each following year, averaged 4.79 percent, compared with 4.82 percent a week earlier.
A year ago, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 5.98 percent, 15-year mortgages were at 5.55 percent and the one-year ARM was at 5.24 percent. A year ago, the 5/1 ARM averaged 5.61 percent.
Lenders charged an average of 0.7 percent in fees and points on 30-year mortgages, up from 0.6 percent the previous week, while they charged an average 0.7 percent in fees and points on 15-year mortgages, up from 0.6 percent the previous week.
The 5/1 ARM fees and points were 0.6 percent, unchanged from the previous week. The one-year ARM fees and points were 0.6 percent, unchanged from the previous week.
Freddie Mac and its larger sibling, Fannie Mae, [FNM0.76-0.01(-1.3%)] were placed under government conservatorship in early September.
Freddie Mac is a mortgage finance company chartered by Congress to buy mortgages from lenders and package them into securities to sell to investors or to hold in its own portfolio.
