How will the bailout affect the Sarasota real estate market?

In case you have not heard yet, today congress passed the $700 billion plus bailout of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The bill is designed to bolster the struggling economy and open up the credit markets.

Warren Buffett was quoted today as sating the bailout will "not solve all our problems, but it will help." The truth is that no one know for sure if this will work, but we had to do something to help loosen the credit markets.

The question many locals are wondering is how this will affect the Sarasota real estate market. It will probably be many months before we see significant improvement. The US Treasury will now have the ability to help slow down the rate of foreclosures. The bill is a step in the right direction. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, "the housing market will receive an important boost via lower mortgage rates and more available mortgage credit."

One thing is for sure, we are not going to see prices start heading back up until the inventory is cleaned up. Slowing foreclosures, lower mortgage rates and access to credit will help to eventually get things moving back in a positive direction.

Savvy buyers with cash and good credit are taking advantage of market conditions. The old saying that "Cash" is king" is so true today. I've worked with several investors lately that have bought property at 50 cents on the dollar because of the their ability to offer clean deals and quick closes.