According to reports issued by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, the agency that monitors real estate happenings there, auctions have failed to make the impression they needed to. The organization has said that this is an indication that the housing market here has peaked. It also says that the housing market's prices will begin to ease in the short term.
For the first time this past year, the real estate agents here have reported only 60 per cent clearance rates here. In comparison, at auction in 2007, about the same time of the year, the results were much different with clearance rates that were as high as 80 per cent. This year it seemed that only low bidders turned out.
More so, the numbers of buyers that turned out were much lower than in the past. Those auctions happening in the outlying suburban areas of the city were even slower and many were even left to sit. Some of the bargain foreclosure homes on the market also did not do well, and did not sell.
Many agents here are blaming the intense slowdown on the media attention this week that has been focused on the overall decline in housing here. As expected, Victoria's housing market is officially cooling.