Auction Markets Still Hot Despite Flood Of Listings

This past Saturday, May 1, saw the home auction markets resume at full pace with a total of 2287 auctions reported in the nation’s auction capitals, an increase of 33.9% over the previous weekend and the highest offering since the Super Saturday of March 27.

Despite the surge in auctions, the average clearance rate held firm at 83.3%, just below the 83.4 of the previous weekend.

The Sydney auction market continues what is the strongest start to the year for the local housing market since 1989.

Reporting a clearance rate of 84.6%, Sydney fell just shy of the 85.1% recorded the previous weekend, and well above the COVID-impacted 52.4% recorded this time last year.

While Sydney’s Saturday result was the second consecutive weekend of marginally lower clearance rates, it was achieved despite a 39% increase in the number of homes offered for sale.

A total of 934 auctions were reported on Saturday, compared to the previous weekends 672, while the median price of $ 1,590,500 for houses sold at auction at the weekend was 9.7% higher than the $1,449,900 reported over the previous Saturday.

Melbourne fared similarly with the auction market recording its highest clearance rate in a month – a figure of 80.1% – up on last week’s 79.0% and well ahead of the COVID-impacted 34.7% of the same weekend last year.

The strong result comes as 1084 homes were listed for auction on Saturday, well above the 835 of the previous weekend and the 157 auctioned over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne recorded a median price of $1,001,000 for houses sold at auction on the weekend which was 2.6% higher than the $975,000 recorded over the previous weekend.

For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.

The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.

So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.

Designed for indoor-outdoor living, the house has matching mahogany paneling and limestone both inside and out. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

The dining room is between an outdoor garden and the staircase. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.

Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.

The kitchen and family room open to the garden and pool. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Cast alcoves and mahogany shelves house the couple’s books and ceramics. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.

A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”

Ehrlich said it took a few tries to get the concrete wall right. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

‘It’s a really hard material to tame,’ Ehrlich said of concrete. Workers learned as they went, and Waldfogel and Helyn grew to appreciate the imperfect material. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

A central staircase is housed in a glass tower. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.

Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Two wings of the house are connected by horizontal planes. Arthur Sharif/Sotheby’s International Realty

Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.

Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.

Auction Markets Still Hot Despite Flood Of Listings

A sharp rise in auctions had little effect on clearance rates.

A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.