Holiday distractions for strong and steady Melbourne market

Auction numbers in Melbourne’s strong and steady home auction market will be down this weekend with many buyers and sellers distracted by the commencement of the school holidays

Despite the holiday pause, a significant volume of homes will still go under the hammer on Saturday providing hungry buyers with a reasonable choice of listings.

Well over 900 homes are scheduled for auction which although significantly lower than last Saturdays total of 1351 auctions, remains well ahead of the 482 conducted over the same weekend last year.

Melbourne’s western suburbs is again top of list for auction numbers this weekend in Melbourne  with 153 followed by the inner city 138, the north east 130, the inner south 116, the outer east 111, the inner east 109, the north 91 and the south east 62.

Most popular suburb for auctions in Melbourne this weekend is Reservoir with 15 followed by Elwood 14, Kew and Mount Waverley each with 13, Brunswick 12, Toorak 11 and a number of suburbs with 10 auctions scheduled including Glen Waverley, Craigieburn, Moonee Ponds and Epping.

The remarkably consistently Melbourne home auction market produced yet another strong result last weekend despite recent hikes in mortgage rates announced by the major banks.

Melbourne recorded a clearance rate of 79.5 per cent last Saturday which was higher than the previous weekends 78.3 per cent with results continuing to track above those reported at the same time last year.

Melbourne has made a strong start to the autumn selling season with a total clearance rate over March of 76.9 per cent. Although this was slightly lower than the 77.2 per cent recorded over February, it was well ahead of the 71.9 per cent recorded over March last year.

Melbourne recorded a median auction price of $890,000 over March which was higher than the $830,500 reported over February and 11.0 per cent higher than the $802,000 recorded over March last year.

Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket