Clearance Rates Hit New Highs In Sydney
With the median house price sold in the Harbour City tipping $1.6 million.
By Terry Christodoulou
Mon, Mar 1, 2021 4:31am
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Covering off the last weekend of summer, clearance rates from around the country’s top markets were high this weekend, as Sydney reported a record weekend clearance rate of 90.0% – higher than the previous weekend’s 87.3% and the 85.8% reported for the same weekend last year.
Sydney recorded a median price for houses sold at auction on the weekend of $1,645,000, lower than last weekend’s $1,692,500 but 14.2% higher than the $1,440,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Sydney’s Central Coast, North West, Northern Beaches and Upper North Shore fared best, with the city’s West performing weakest with an albeit solid 82.1%. Units cleared slightly below that of houses at 88.9%.
Melbourne also continued to recover from its recent lockdown reporting its highest clearance rate for three weeks of 82.0%, higher than the previous weekend’s figure of 79.6% and the 80.4% reported over the same weekend last year with a median price of $1,002,500.
Encouragingly for Melbourne, auction numbers again increased sharply to 1211 compared to the previous weekend’s 1004. However, listing numbers have still fallen from last year’s figures of 1384 for the same weekend last year.
Sydney featured 734 auctions this weekend compared to last year’s 911.
Around the country, Brisbane saw a clearance rate of 73.4%, down from last week’s 83.0% but up on last year’s 65.8%. Adelaide was reasonably steady at 85% from last week’s 87.5% and up on last year’s 71.1% while Canberra was also consistent performing at 85.9% from last week’s 85.2% and up from 70.3.%
Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson of MyHousingMarket.com.au
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The US housing market remains under pressure as high mortgage rates continue to weigh on affordability and demand. Industry leaders say 2026 has been one of the toughest years for home sales, with slower price growth, weaker mortgage activity, and fewer buyers entering the market. However, experts say reduced competition and more price cuts could create opportunities for well-prepared buyers.
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
