National Clearance Rates Lift Despite Melbourne Lockdown
The record-breaking May home auction market concluded strongly.
By Kanebridge News
Mon, May 31, 2021 10:18am
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The past five weekends have seen unprecedented auction numbers flood the market.
With the influx of listings seeing major capitals Sydney and Melbourne trending downwards, national listing numbers rebounded on Saturday, May 29, with the national average on Saturday increasing to 82.2% – marginally higher than the previous Saturday’s 82.0%.
This comes as 2505 auction reported – higher than the previous weekend’s 2333 and just below the May monthly record of 2563 set on May 8.
Of note, lockdown measures in Melbourne hardly impacted the market with the city reporting a clearance rate of 76.5%, just below the 76.9% recorded the previous weekend. Despite being the lowest result for the year so far, the figures remain impressive when considering the restrictions imposed.
Reporting 1272 auctions on Saturday, well ahead of the 1117 conducted the previous weekend, Melbourne’s median price for houses sold at auction on the weekend was $987,500 – just below the $995,500 recorded over the previous weekend.
Sydney was at the heart of the strong national figures with a clearance rate of 82.2% clearance rate – higher than the 81.5% recorded the previous weekend and the first lift in rates in five consecutive weekends.
A total of 981 Sydney auctions were reported on Saturday, higher than the previous weekend’s 949. This brings Harbour City’s total to a record-breaking 4868 weekend auctions over May, with each Saturday registering over 900 listings.
Sydney recorded a median price of $1,605,000 for houses sold at auction at the weekend, just below the $1,620,000 reported over the previous Saturday but 27.9% higher than the $1,255,000 recorded over the same weekend last year.
Data powered by Dr. Andrew Wilson of My Housing Market.
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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.”
