By Marie Brown

SACRAMENTO (OBSNews.com) - Real estate market watchers across Sacramento and the nation can continue to enjoy a strong tailwind in the form of continued low interest rates for home loans. Home lending giant Freddie Mac recently reported that the average rate for four types of home mortgage loans reached their lowest levels since 1971.

Part of the reason for the continued decline in mortgage rates is because the prices on Treasury securities has increased. This creates a correspondingly lower yield for the Treasuries, and, because mortgage loan rates almost always follow suit.

Rates on 30 year fixed mortgages averaged 4.49% compared to last Thursday's week end rate of 4.54% 15 year fixed rate mortgage loans carried an average rate of 3.95%, off from 4% the week prior.

While not as historically low as the 30 year loan, the 15 year rates are the lowest since 1991.

For Sacramento area home buyers the news is welcome, and real estate brokers are hoping that recent investments in technology along with downsizing during the housing crunchwill help their firms.

Sacramento real estate broker Patrick McGilvray, president of TheHomeBuyingCenter.com commented, "We had to adjust our business model during the housing downturn to rely less on office space and more on technology to better serve and stay in touch with our customers."

Another broker based in Sacramento, Dan Jacuzzi, president of
Century 21 Select Group, said that his firm had continued to consolidate other brokerage offices stretching from the Sacramento area all the way up to Lake Tahoe and Reno. "The continued challenges of the Real Estate Market have created the opportunity to join forces with a number of great companies in our region to achieve economies of scale and expand our technology platform to allow agents to better serve home buying customers."

Continued low rates, Jacuzzi added, "Definitely are helping prospective home buyers by keeping payments affordable now and well into the future."