SE Texas Real Estate Talk

May Home Sales in Southeast Texas

It's official! 

The residential home sales data for the month of May is in.  Here's what I find the most shocking:

• There is a 12.6 months supply of homes on the market!

That is a lot of homes that are currently for sale.  The total number of active residential listings in the Beaumont MLS is 1,832.  In May 143 homes closed and title transferred to a new owner.  At that pace it would take over a year for all the homes on the market to sell if no other homes were listed for sale. 

Keep in mind the definition of a balance supply of homes on the market- as defined by The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M- is a 6 month supply.   It looks like the Southeast Texas housing market is a little out of balance. 

What's it mean? 

Downward price pressure.  When buyers have a lot of homes to choose from then typically prices go down.  Remember the law of supply and demand from those high school days. 

But wait, just a minute...

Before you go around making offers of half what the seller is asking, keep this in mind.  Most sellers that are not distressed sellers- not a short sale, REO, foreclosure or pre-foreclosure seller- are only negotiating about 5-10% off of their original asking price. 

Read that again.  Maybe that's why we have multiple offers coming in on the foreclosures.  When homes are priced below market value the buyers are competing to get the homes.  In Southeast Texas we don't have a market flooded with distressed sellers.  You have to look to find them. 

So the May home sales data is a little confusing.  There are a lot of homes for sale.  However, we still have homes receiving multiple offers from competing buyers.  Its important to have the best market data on hand when you are ready to make an offer.  If you need help, you can contact me.  It might save you a lot of money. 

 



Beaumont, Texas Ranks 1078 on Home Value Estimator | Home Listing Report (HLR) Infographic

Home Value Estimator | Home Listing Report (HLR) Infographic.

Ever wonder what your home is worth? The Coldwell Banker Home Listing Report (HLR) can help. HLR provides the average home listing price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on coldwellbanker.com. The infographic below allows you the ability to compare home values in more than 2,300 real estate markets. HLR is a valuable tool for both sellers looking to estimate the value of their home or buyers trying to gauge real estate prices in a specific market. 

Out of 2300 real estate markets:

Beaumont, Texas ranks 1078 almost right in the middle of the bunch in rank.  The average home price for a 4 bedroom, 2 bath is $229,799.

Here's what might surprise you:

• Baytown ranks #445 with a average price of $172,032
• Houston ranks #839 with a average price of $187,211
• Austin ranks #1470 with a average price of $283,243

For the complete rankings click on the full article above and if you want to know more about the Beaumont, Texas housing market then contact me.  Its easy.  Click the contact me icon here on the blog.  Or call me direct. My direct number is shown on the blog's home page.  Its my business helping clients make educated decisions about the local Southeast Texas housing market.  I can help you too.

Beaumont, Texas Made the List: Top 8 Best Mid-Size Markets for Investors

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Top 8 Best Mid-Size Markets for Investors.

Here's some good news for the Beaumont housing market.  We made the list of the top 8 best mid-size markets. 

Top Performing Housing Markets

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-7 Highest-Performing Major Housing Markets.

Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Port Arthur don't make this list but if you want to see which markets did make the list the full story is here, click the link.

130 Homes Sold in Southeast Texas in May 2011

Take a look.

 
 

Data provided is from the Beaumont MLS.  Altogether 130 homes closed in May.  The areas in Southeast Texas with more than five homes sales for the month of May are shown above. 

Interesting data on the chart:

1. There is a big differential in DOM (days on the market) in the top selling areas with a low of 88 and a high of 211.  In other words selling in Beaumont W6 it will probably take you just under three months but if you are selling in Beaumont W3 you could be looking at seven months.
2. Original price % is the percent of the original price that the home sold for.  Sellers in Beaumont W6 were likely to come off their asking price by only 3% whereas home sellers in Beaumont W2 were on average coming down 11%
3. The most affordable homes were selling in Vidor and the most expensive were selling in Beaumont W6 with Lumberton close behind. 

Next week I'll compare May 2011 to the previous three year's May sales figures.  It should be interesting to see how far the market has fallen since the peak years.  If you want more data on home sales in Southeast Texas, contact me- phone, text, email.  All questions will be answered.