Auction Market Still Strong In Spring
The auction market is building momentum.
2 min
Residential auction markets strengthened in most capitals at the weekend, as the spring selling season gathers momentum, aided by easing covid restrictions.
National auction numbers rose sharply at the weekend – after two weeks of decline – with all capitals reporting an increase in listings. A total of 1272 homes went under the hammer, compared to last weekend’s 1150 and well ahead of the 748 listed this time last year.
The national clearance rate was also up, increasing from last weekend’s 80.5% to 84.9% — the highest since April and the third consecutive increase in the national clearance rate.
Strong clearance rates in Sydney (85.1%), Brisbane (83.7%), Adelaide (89.2%) and Canberra (94.1%) lifted the national clearance rate while Melbourne (72.3%), dropped due to strict restrictions.
In Sydney, the market has stayed hot despite more listings coming to market, with numbers increasing for the fourth consecutive Saturday as 569 homes were offered for sale – up on the previous weekend’s 511.
The clearance rate was just down on last weekend’s 85.2%, but well ahead of the 72.2% recorded over the same weekend last year. It’s now the seventh consecutive weekend with clearance rates above 80%.
Sydney recorded a median price of $1,690,500 for houses sold at auction at the weekend
which was lower than the $1,714,000 reported over the previous Saturday but 31.1% higher than the $1,290,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Melbourne’s auction market reported a decline in the clearance rate at the weekend down from the previous 79.3% — a result of higher proportion of withdrawals from higher listing numbers – 28.7% of reported auctions withdrawn compared to the previous weekend’s 18.9%.
Listings increased for the first time in three weekends with a total of 434 auctions compared to the previous weekend’s 414.
Melbourne recorded a median price of $1,000,250 for houses sold at auction at the weekend which was lower than the $1,069,000 recorded over the previous weekend.
Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson of My Housing Market.
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The 25-room mansion was built for an heiress and later belonged to a socialite and architect on the Empire State Building.
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A 110-year-old Colorado estate that has hosted Frank Sinatra and Lyndon B. Johnson just slashed $10 million off its price tag.
The 12,000-square-foot manor house—with 25 rooms—and its five accessory dwelling in the alpines of Evergreen was relisted on Friday asking $16.8 million, down from its initial $26.8 million price in 2023.
The sellers, Richard and Pamela Bard, who paid $1.3 million for the “legacy property” named Greystone Estate in 1992, have shopped it around on and off for the past 20 years, according to agent Jessica Northrop at Compass Real Estate.
Richard Bard, CEO of his own private equity firm, has “hosted many corporate events and retreats where important business is discussed but they are also able to relax,” Northrop said. “Greystone has a special way of making people feel at ease.”
Bard said “it’s not a casual effort” to sell. He said it’s difficult to find a buyer with the facilities to “take care of it.”
The Bards intend to move closer to their children in Denver.
Before the Bards, Greystone Estate had several eras—as a summer house, a guest ranch and a business base—since it was built in 1915 by Genevieve Phipps, an industrialist’s daughter.
Phipps, who spent her inheritance on the land, built the 54-acre summer escape with the “elegance and feel of a fine Adirondack mansion combined with a mountain rustic style,” according to an online record of the estate’s history.
Its heyday, arguably in the 1940s to 1980s, saw Sinatra, Johnson and Groucho Marx come through its doors, when its owner William Sandifer, a socialite and one the Empire State Building’s architects, operated a guest ranch out of the place.
The Bards, who used a carriage house on the property as their company headquarters, completed Greystone’s full modernization in 1997. They also opened up the living and dining areas to receive more light, raised the ceiling on the upper level and combined several rooms to create a primary suite.
They replaced an outdoor pavilion and its helipad with something more suitable for their daughter’s wedding in 2001, according to Northrop.
The main 25-room manor includes a wine cellar, bar, gym and library.
The additional structures, which include a cottage, a log cabin, a pool house, a carriage house and a pavilion and guest house, surround the pool area and overlook acres of aspen groves and mountains.
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