Record February Ends With Market Cool Off
Late summer listings ease clearance rates.
2 min
The high volumes of homes that went to auction through February has finally eased clearance rates.
Despite a largely positive weekend across the nation’s capitals, the clearance rate has finally succumbed to the volume of listings that has inundated the market this past weekend and throughout February.
The national auction market reported a significant increase over the weekend, with a total of 2627 listings reported compared to the previous weekend’s 2341 and ahead of the 2163 reported for the same weekend last year.
The high volumes led to a national clearance rate of 77.9%, the lowest for the month. This is compared to last weekend’s 81.5% and well below the 83.3% recorded over the same weekend last year.
Capital city markets face a challenge with the first ‘Super Saturday’ of the year next weekend likely to put downward pressure on clearance rates.
Sydney saw another strong clearance rate despite yet another record February day for auction listings with 965 properties listed — up on the previous weekend’s 878 and higher than the 734 reported over the same weekend last year.
The NSW capital recorded a clearance rate of 78.8% at the weekend — higher than the 78.1% reported over the previous weekend but well below the 90.0% recorded over the same weekend last year.
Sydney recorded a median price of $1,755,000 for houses sold at auction at the weekend which was higher than the $1,750,000 reported over the previous weekend and 6.7% higher than the $1,645,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
In Melbourne, the weekend auction market reported a significant day of auctions with 1288 homes listed — higher than the previous weekend’s 1129 and above the 1211 reported for the same weekend last year.
The Victorian capital posted a clearance rate of 71.4% on Saturday, a 4-weekend low and well below the 82.0% recorded over the same weekend last year.
Melbourne recorded a median price of $1,187,000 for houses sold at auction at the weekend which was higher than last weekend’s $1,165,000 and 18.4% higher than the $1,005,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson, 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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