Some Great News

Some Great News

For all of us in the Virtual Tour, Real Estate, and Business Marketing, the economy is a big factor. So there is some recent news that may allow improvement in the housing market. U.S. mortgage rates dipped below 5 percent again, a key level that may boost home loan demand, according to a closely watched mortgage survey on Thursday.

The lowest mortgage rates in decades and high affordability helped the hard-hit housing market find some footing last year after a three-year slump. Attractive rates bode well for the housing market, which remains highly vulnerable to setbacks and heavily reliant on government intervention. Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, the most widely used loan, averaged 4.97 percent for the week ended Feb. 11, down from the previous week’s 5.01 percent, according to a survey released by Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company.  That is below the year-ago level of 5.16 percent, but above the record low of 4.71 percent in early December. Freddie Mac started the survey in 1971.

“Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are below 5 percent for a third week this year, which helps a number of homeowners to refinance their existing housing debt” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that the median sales price for previously occupied homes rose in 67 out of 151 metropolitan areas in the October-December quarter versus a year ago. That’s a sharp improvement from the third quarter, when prices rose in only 20 percent of cities.  The national median price was $172,900, or 4.1 percent below the fourth quarter last year. That was the smallest year-over-year price decline in more than two years.

Home sales surged in the quarter, outpacing the third quarter and the previous year’s figures. A federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers that was originally due to expire Nov. 30 but was extended through April provided much of the fuel. Sales for the quarter hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6 million, up 27 percent from a year earlier.

So in this ever challenging Property Marketing business, 360 Image Media continues to evolve and offer more and more exciting new features for our virtual tour customers. We also have partnered with the industries best virtual tour software from RTV.

So with mortgage rates back under 5% and home prices stabilizing allow our team to show you why we are the number one provider of Wisconsin virtual tours! Looking forward to a great 2010

Sincerely,

Robin Duran
360 Image Media
Milwaukee Virtual Tours

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