Old man winter sure knows how to put a damper on home sales.  Not that January is know as a hot month for residential sales activity here in Southeast Texas, but this winter has started off on icy ground.  Here's what the data looks like:

What jumps out at you?  Take a look at days on the market.  Beaumont home sellers are now averaging over five months of marketing time prior to a home sale.  In Mid-County home sellers are averaging over six months prior to sale. 

The market is heavily weighed on the entry level properties.  33% of home sales were under $100,000 in Beaumont's housing market and 51% were under a $100,000 in Mid-County. 

The upper end of the housing market in Southeast Texas is still lagging the normal pace.  Just 14% of the home sales recorded in the Beaumont MLS were homes priced at $250,000 and above.  In Mid-County it was 7%.

So after reading this you may deem me a pessimist.  That would be wrong.  I'm a optimist.  When a market slows this much it is getting ready for a rebound.  Spring time is just around the corner. 

For those of us that call Southeast Texas home, we know that when someone refers to Mid-County they are talking about the cities of Groves, Nederland, Port Neches and Port Arthur.  When some refers to Beaumont they are talking about Beaumont and the more rural county areas outside the proper city limits.

However, sometimes our area is combined in a MSA "Market Survey Area" which combines both Beaumont and Port Arthur together.  Texas A&M Real Estate Center offers some of the best data about our area and all of Texas for that matter.  You can find housing sales, building permits, employment statistics and much more if you are really curious and have a lot of time to spare.  If you are like most of us- short of time these days- and you don't have time to research the housing statistics about Southeast Texas on your own.  Have no worries.  You can still know the inside scoop about what's going on in our area. Just read the blog. 

Here's the recap of Mid-County residential sales activity for May, 2008.

• 80 sales closed
• $126,000  (rounded to even thousand) was the average sales price
• Over 10 million in dollar volume changed ownership
• 82 days on the market is what the average home spent from listing to sale

As always you can request information about any neighborhood, city, town or even street in Southeast Texas and I'll research it for you.  Southeast Texas Real Estate Talk is for anyone who wants to know more about the housing market.  Now you know what sold in May in Mid-County.