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Crystal Beach home sales soar By Laura Elder Published February 4, 2008 Things that go boom: Home sales on Bolivar Peninsula, fueled partly by an $8 billion expansion of Royal Dutch Shell’s Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, are defying signs of a slump, industry observers say.The Crystal Beach area housing market is one of the brightest in Texas, seeing a 41 percent rise in 2007 sales volume compared with the year before, officials say. Sales volume, the amount of sales in dollars, is $42.2 million. Realtors say volume actually jumped 47 percent when new construction that isn’t included in the Multiple Listing Services is counted. Median home prices, now at $165,000, have risen 12 percent, according to Bolivar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce officials. The number of units sold in 2007 is 225, compared with 178 the year before. As Shell doubles the Motiva refinery’s size, Valero Energy Corp. is investing $2 billion in a new refinery in Beaumont, and Eastman Chemical is investing $1.6 billion for a new gasification plant there, too. All the energy projects are translating into a construction, small-business and service industries boom from Galveston County to Beaumont, officials say. Bechtel Engineering was awarded the development contract for the Motiva project. “We are already seeing increased sales activity from Bechtel engineers, support staff, executives and their families,” reports Mike Stuart, marketing director for Audubon Village Resort, one of several high-end developments on the peninsula. Copyright © 2008 The Galveston County Daily News |
