The recent news that pretty much trumped all financial news (real estate related or otherwise) was the historic government bailout designed to address the economy, save banks and, among other things, fix the housing market by getting people interested in markets like Palm Beach real estate again.

This bailout has divided many people with some lambasting the decision and others praising it as an unwanted, albeit necessary measure to keep the economy from getting worse.  While the bailout is designed to address multiple components affecting the country, some experts don’t think it will do very much to get people interested in buying Palm Beach condos again.

Current figures show that thirty year mortgage rates remain high and therefore prevent most people from being able to afford the monthly payments and that’s on top of how hard it is to actually get approved for a mortgage in the first place.  In order to get the ball rolling on home buying again, real estate experts believe the government should begin by lowering these rates.

Rates have dropped considerably but they’re still not to the point where people can afford them on top of all the other costs that go into buying a home.  If the government were to assist buyers with a down payment up to a certain point, it would take out one of the major roadblocks and increase the number of people buying Palm Beach homes.

Other suggestions have already been implemented, namely the Hope the Homeowners plan which will allow thousands of homeowners stuck with adjustable rate and subprime mortgages to refinance.

The bailout is still in its early stages and many of these economic and housing solutions haven’t really begun to show their results but as 2008 comes to a close, the effects on whether they’ll sway Americans into buying real estate again will show in the numbers.

According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home resales rose 7.4 percent – the most since October 2001 and the fourth such increase this year.

All regions of the country saw an increase in pending sales from July, with the West showing the largest increase of 18.4 percent.  The Northeast saw an 8.4 percent rise, the Midwest a 3.6 percent increase and 2.3 percent in the South.

According to reports, people are taking advantage of low home prices, and sales are up strongly in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.

Although the likely reason for the rise in pending resales is investors buying up foreclosures, the fact remains that these houses are being taken off of the market, which has had a surplus of inventory.

Despite the sluggish market and the home prices slowly declining, sales have increased since last year. August is the second month in a row of sales increases since the last year.

Palm Beach County home sales were up 10% in August, selling a total of 623 homes up from 568 a year ago. As well as Condo sales, which increased 11% from last year.

Broward County sales were up 12% from last year, selling 604 homes compared to 538 a year ago.

HOPE for Homeowners, a new program introduced by HUD this week could help homeowners prevent foreclosure. The program calls for the lender of an existing subprime mortgage to forgive a portion of the debt similar to a short sale, however instead of foreclosing on the homeowner the balance of the loan is rolled into a fixed-rate FHA mortgage.

While overall sales in Palm Beach have slowed, one area seemingly less affected have been the luxury homes and condos.

In the last three months several of our biggest sales were

•  820 W Ocean Ave sold for over 21 million
• 159 Via Del Lago sold for over 11 million
• 1428 S Ocean Blvd sold for over 10 million
• 231 Coral Lake sold for over 6 million
• 642 N County Road sold for over 4 million
• 232 Sandpiper Dr. sold for over 4 million
• 1006 Adam Rd. Sold for over 3 million
• 19647 Riverside Dr. sold for over 3 million
• 351 Bald Eagle Dr. sold for over 3 million
• 151 Seaview Ave sold for 3 million