By Darrell Hofheinz - Palm Beach Daily News Staff Writer  

 If anyone needs any more proof that the market this year for single-family homes in Palm Beach has been better than in 2009, call real estate attorney Leslie Evans.

“In all of last year, there were 87 (single-family) sales. Through just the third quarter of this year, we had 89,” said Evans, who has released his third-quarter edition of The Evans Report real estate analysis. “I think what people need to take away from this report is that it appears that prices have bottomed out and sales are up.”

The report shows that sales of island homes and condominiums rose for the quarter encompassing July through September, continuing the largely positive sales trend evident since January.

Compared to the first nine months of 2009, single-family home sales this year were up by nearly half — from 61 to 89 — between January and September, as noted in the comprehensive report. Evans, who owns property on the island, has tracked Palm Beach sales for 10 years and provides legal counsel to real estate agencies and their clients.

“The number of sales has gone up for the first time since the same period in 2007,” Evans said.

The report offered more good news for sellers of single-family homes: Prices rose during the first nine months of the year over the same period in 2009.

But for homeowners who sold their condominium and cooperative units, the price picture wasn’t as rosy, thanks to a glutted market that has largely put buyers in control of the amount of cash that changes hands.

The median sales price of condos and co-ops dropped by $150,000 to $400,000, the report noted. The median is the price at which half the properties sold for more and half for less.

Those lower prices may have spurred sales, however. The reports shows that 211 condos and co-ops sold in the first nine months of the year, compared to 153 during the same period of 2009. And from July through September, there were 15 more sales during the third quarter of 2009, when 54 units sold.

“For all of last year, we had 198 condo sales,” Evans added. “So far in the first nine months of this year, there have been 211.”

Single-family prices up

Sellers of single-family homes this year have fared better than their counterparts in the condo market. The median sales price during the first nine months of this year was up by $187,500, rising to about $2.74 million from $2.55 million in 2009.

The third quarter saw 28 single-family sales this year, five more than in the same period last year. The numbers were even more dramatic when comparing sales in the first nine months of each year: There were 89 sales in 2010 versus 61 in 2009.

As far as high-dollar sales in the first nine months of this year, The Evans Report showed that only one home sold for more than $20 million — a sale recorded March 10 when Joel and Darcie Kassowitz bought 850 S. County Road from the Isabel Collier Read Residence Trust for $20.5 million. In contrast, there were no $20-million-plus sales in the first nine months of 2009 and only one for the entire year — December’s $24 million sale of 1200 S. Ocean Blvd.

Sales of single-family homes from January through September this year rose in two of the three neighborhoods listed in the report: In the North End, 63 houses sold this year versus 39 last year; while in the Midtown area, 15 houses sold this year compared to 10 last year. But for the same period in the South End/Estate Section, 11 houses sold this year versus 12 last year.

Median prices rose in each of the three areas, except for Midtown, where the median price was flat at $2.775 million.

In the report’s price-range breakdown of single-family houses, the category of homes priced below $2.5 million saw the most activity, with 41 homes sold in the first nine months of this year versus 27 in the same period last year.

Lower prices spur sales

For condo and co-op sales, the report uses Sloan’s Curve as a dividing line, and sales were up in both areas. The area to the south saw the greatest sales increase — from 93 to 136 units — when comparing the first nine months of 2009 and 2010, repectively. 

 Sales for $10 million and above, January-September

• $20.5 million, 850 S. County Road, March 10
• $19.32 million, 947 N. Ocean Blvd. (vacant lot), April 10
• $18.5 million, 540 S. Ocean Blvd., June 10
• $17.1 million, 340 Polmer Park, Jan. 10
• $13.5 million, 822 S. County Road, April 10
• $11.56 million, 1930 S. Ocean Blvd., Feb. 10
• $10.41 million, 111 Chateaux Drive, May 10
• $10.33 million, 686 Island Drive, June 10
• $10 million, 1930 S. Ocean Blvd., Sept. 10

— Source: 2010 Third Quarter Evans Report