Weekend Auction Markets Experience Listing Surge
The national clearance rate fell to its lowest figure since August.
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The high and rising volumes of late spring listings have forced the national clearance rate to 78.6% — the lowest result since August – and well below the previous weekend’s 83.8%.
National auction numbers were up to 2572 from the previous weekend’s 2463 and well ahead of the 1413 auctioned over the same weekend last year.
Auction listings have now increased nationally over the past seven weekends as the usually busy spring selling season has been amplified by the loosening of covid restrictions in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Sydney saw the market steady with a clearance rate of 77.8% at the weekend. The result was similar to the previous weekend’s 76.1% but again lower than the 78.4% recorded over the same weekend last year.
A total of 988 homes were listed for auction on Saturday – similar to the previous weekend’s 994 but again well ahead of the 760 auctioned over the same weekend last year.
Sydney recorded a median price of $1,780,000 for houses sold at auction at the weekend compared to the $1,777,500 reported over the previous Saturday but 22.8% higher than the $1,450,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Melbourne fared similarly to Sydney with a clearance rate of 77.7% — up on the previous weekend’s 76.5% and also higher than the 73.8% recorded over the same weekend last year.
The higher clearance rate was reported despite a surge in listings with 1206 homes listed for auction at the weekend – well above the 1095 reported over the previous weekend and significantly higher than the 494 auctioned over the same weekend last year.
Melbourne recorded a median price of $1,080,000 for houses sold at auction at the weekend which was higher than the $1,065,000 recorded over the previous weekend and 13.7% higher than the $950,025 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson, My Housing Market.
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The actress and her husband, comedy writer Dave McCary, spent more than three years restoring the house, which is one of the priciest properties for sale in the Texas city.
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In 2021, actress Emma Stone purchased a historic estate in Austin, Texas, with a plan to move her family there. Four years later, she has instead decided to put the property on the market.
The actress and her husband, comedy writer Dave McCary, are asking $26.5 million for the newly renovated estate, according to Eric Moreland of Moreland Properties/Forbes Global Properties, one of the listing agents. The 1.25-acre property, located in the upscale Tarrytown neighbourhood, will be among the most expensive on the market in Austin.
Stone and McCary have spent more than three years renovating and restoring the Texas property, Moreland said.
A spokesperson for Stone didn’t respond to requests for comment. Moreland said the couple’s New York business interests have expanded since they started the remodel, and while they hope to live in Austin eventually, it doesn’t make sense for now.
The couple, who are co-founders of the production company Fruit Tree, own a roughly $12 million apartment in lower Manhattan, according to property records. Stone is slated to star in the upcoming contemporary Western film “Eddington.”
It’s unclear what Stone and McCary paid for the Austin property, since Texas is a nondisclosure state . The Georgian-style brick house dates to around 1940, making it one of the oldest estates in the area.
The roughly 10,000-square-foot estate includes a main house with four bedrooms and a two-bedroom guesthouse. The property also has a pool, a hot tub, and a garage with a screening room and entertaining space above.
As part of the renovation, the couple removed, cleaned and reused all the exterior brick. They also reconfigured some of the living spaces, opening the kitchen to the living room for a more modern layout. It took more than a year just to install the millwork in the screening room, said Moreland.
The contractors are now putting the finishing touches on the property, he said.
The “La La Land” actress has a track record of buying and selling her homes for significantly more than she paid. In 2022, she sold her blufftop Malibu, Calif., home for $4.425 million after buying it for $3.25 million in 2018, according to property records.
Last year, she sold her home in L.A.’s Comstock Hills neighbourhood for $4.3 million, significantly more than the $2.3 million she paid in 2019.
Austin saw an influx of new residents during COVID, but many of those are now returning to the East and West coasts, particularly workers in the tech sector.
While the market “has come down to earth a little bit” since the pandemic-era boom, Moreland said, he has seen a number of $20 million-plus deals over the past few months.
Moreland has the listing with colleague Diane Humphreys.
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