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.
Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow homeowners to use the $8,000 tax credit as a downpayment.
Donovan’s remarks came in an address to several thousand Realtors® gathered this morning at The Real Estate Summit: Advancing the U.S. Economy, a special daylong session at the Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo here.
Secretary Donovan said that important changes, which the National Association of Realtors® has been calling for, will help consumers purchase a home. “We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment,” Donovan said. According to Donovan, the FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.
Donovan said the Obama administration plans to further stabilize the housing market. “I do think we have some early signs hat the market overall is stabilizing,” said Donovan. “Since January we’ve seen both home sales moving up and down around a relatively stable number and we are seeing the first signs that the rapid decline in home prices is starting to abate.”
NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth, said, “As the leading advocate for housing issues and homeownership, NAR continues to take a leadership role in promoting ideas for improving our economy by stabilizing the housing and real estate markets. Today we have the best of the best to begin a dialogue, develop solutions and initiate action toward real estate and economic recovery.”
The morning session included a panel discussion that was moderated by CNBC’s Ron Insana. The 13 panelists and Realtors® in attendance examined cutting-edge solutions necessary to promote and preserve homeownership and real estate development, stimulate the economy, and protect the nation’s taxpayers. They also shared their ideas on what the role and responsibility of the federal government is in the revitalization effort.
The list of distinguished panelists include Dr. Martin Feldstein, professor of Economics from Harvard University; Dr. Barry Bluestone, professor of Political Economy from Northeastern University; John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Maria Kong, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers; and Sarah Rosen Wartell, executive vice president for the Center for American Progress.
“Right now the Federal Reserve is the market,” said Jay Brinkman, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. “What will be the effect when the Fed stops buying?” Brinkman explained that an exit strategy must be planned for the long-term; the federal government cannot continue to support the mortgage markets indefinitely.
“We must make sure FHA and the GSEs are supported,” added the Wharton School’s Susan Wachter.
“We are thrilled that so many high-caliber individuals were able to join us today at this important meeting to promote stability in the housing market and the U.S. economy,” McMillan said. “We look forward to an ongoing dialogue and action toward this goal, during our midyear meetings this week and beyond.”
Wilmington has been named as one of eighteen coastal dream towns. In Coastal Living Magazine's May issue of Best Places to Live in the Region for Every Budget, the Port City came in 18th.
Allure factors include a revitalized downtown, Riverwalk, and a lively performing arts scene.
The region's film industry also received a big nod with film festivals and Screen Gem Studios' new soundstage that's in the works.
