Auction Markets Still Hot Despite Flood Of Listings
A sharp rise in auctions had little effect on clearance rates.
By Terry Christodoulou
Mon, May 3, 2021 10:00am
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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.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
By Liz Lucking
Mon, Jul 13, 2026 2 min
2 min
Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
