[cobran20]

link

Quote

A YEAR ago, when Sydney property agent Peter Green's clients decided to sell, half opted for auctions, betting competition among buyers would deliver them the best price.

Now less than one in five vendors make that bet over other sales.

"The vendors don't want to embark on the potential of failure," Mr Green, principal of real estate agent Laing+Simmons in Miranda, said. "In the last three months, the number of people visiting open houses has been cut by half. And buyers may show up to auctions, but they don't bid."

Homes sold by auction in Sydney fell to 12.8 per cent of total sales in the three months to the end of November, from a peak of 15.7 per cent in the same period in 2010, according to real estate researcher Australian Property Monitors. Half of the homes that went to auction last month failed to sell, according to APM (which is owned by the Herald's publisher Fairfax Media).

The declining use of auctions, as home prices fell the most in at least 12 years last year, may foreshadow another year of prices falling.

"People's preference for moving away from the auction format is reflecting demand on the ground," JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman said. Mr Jarman said he expected prices to fall another 3 per cent this year as concerns about the global economy outweighed interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank.

"We'll see some demand resume but supply will come on line as well."

The number of homes listed online for sale across Australia jumped 18 per cent last month from a year earlier to 385,036, SQM Research says.

Australia escaped the housing rout seen in the US and Britain, in part due to government measures to boost demand in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Housing prices nationally surged 11.1 per cent in 2009 and 4.7 per cent in 2010, RP Data says. But they fell 3.7 per cent in the first 11 months of last year, apparently the biggest drop since RP Data began compiling the figures in 1999.

About 70 per cent of Australians own their homes, compared with 66.3 per cent in the US, according to census data. The quest to own rather than rent has contributed to surging household debt which, as a proportion of disposable income, tripled here in the past 20 years to 150.8 per cent as of September, central bank data shows.

That compares with 133 per cent in the US at the height of the subprime mortgage boom.

The median price for houses and apartments across all regions in Australia was $315,000 as of November 30, RP Data says. That compares with $US147,800 in the US, figures from website Zillow.com show.

The Block television programme last year followed four couples as they renovated homes seeking the highest price at auction over set targets. More than 3 million watched the finale on August 21 after just one of the four homes sold, for $855,000, against its $840,000 asking price.

"When there are competing buyers, auctions maximise the market value of a property, but when there's not a lot of competition, it's the buyers who hold the whip hand," Andrew Wilson, APM senior economist, said.

The rate of successful home auctions in Sydney slumped to 49.4 per cent last month from a 2011 high of 58.8 per cent and a six-year peak of 71 per cent in February 2010, according to APM.

"The big thing for the property market, consumer confidence, isn't there yet," Angus Raine, chief executive officer of real estate agent Raine & Horne, said. "That's the key missing piece of the property puzzle." He expects many sellers to avoid auctions again this year.

[I'veArrived]

A quick question; do you guys know if APM usually avoids publishing weekly auction results in January or are they trying to avoid availing the public with obvious facts about the state of the property market this year in partiular? The following is an email reply I got from APM - speaks a little of desperation...

Quote

Friday 27 January 2012





Hi XX,



Thank you for your email.



With regards to your enquiry below, due to low auction numbers between 24^th of December until end of January, APM is not able to publish updated weekly auction results as these volumes are not high enough to calculate the statistics that we provide on the site.



However, we will be updating our reports on the site starting February 2012 as the auction campaign season picks up.



We do apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.



Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.





Kind Regards,



Frances Reyes

Customer Service & Content Coordinator

Australian Property Monitors

www.homepriceguide.com.au




Fairfax Digital

Level 2, 1 Darling Island Road

Pyrmont NSW 2009

GPO Box 506

Sydney NSW 2001


T: 1800 817 616




[APM LOGO]








From: [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, 25 January 2012 5:22 PM
To: Australian Property Monitors
Subject: Updated Auction Results



Hi,

I have been a regular reader of the weekly APM auction results for some time, can I ask why the most recent weekly auction report published on your website (http://www.homepriceguide.com.au) is for Saturday 17 December 2011?

Thank you,

[staringclown]

I, on 27 January 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

A quick question; do you guys know if APM usually avoids publishing weekly auction results in January or are they trying to avoid availing the public with obvious facts about the state of the property market this year in partiular? The following is an email reply I got from APM - speaks a little of desperation...

REIV don't publish any results either. I don't think there are many auctions in January as they say. Plus everyone is on holiday until Feb except the good Dr who has a tape recording of his December statements on a loop right thru Jan.

[zaph]

I, on 27 January 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

A quick question; do you guys know if APM usually avoids publishing weekly auction results in January or are they trying to avoid availing the public with obvious facts about the state of the property market this year in partiular? The following is an email reply I got from APM - speaks a little of desperation...

welcome new arrival!

you should pop over to mandatory recipe thread and post a recipe, no matter how lame. in my book directions to a good take away count. I must post my micro-waving hard boiled eggs using an al foil recipe there. hard boiling an egg to perfection is the hardest task, anyway I digress...

no idea if they usually do, but you would expect with low volumes and many on holidays that it would be reasonable not to publish the data..

[zaph]

staringclown, on 27 January 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

REIV don't publish any results either. I don't think there are many auctions in January as they say. Plus everyone is on holiday until Feb except the good Dr who has a tape recording of his December statements on a loop right thru Jan.

I'm starting to think ando is not a person but a computer program that just inserts the numbers and spits out quotes based on an algorithm.

[staringclown]

zaph, on 27 January 2012 - 07:56 AM, said:

welcome new arrival!

you should pop over to mandatory recipe thread and post a recipe, no matter how lame. in my book directions to a good take away count. I must post my micro-waving hard boiled eggs using an al foil recipe there. hard boiling an egg to perfection is the hardest task, anyway I digress...

no idea if they usually do, but you would expect with low volumes and many on holidays that it would be reasonable not to publish the data..

You must spend a lot of money buying new microwaves zaph...

[zaph]

staringclown, on 27 January 2012 - 08:02 AM, said:

You must spend a lot of money buying new microwaves zaph...

I've only gone through five this month; one total house fire and two partial.

seriously. wrap an egg in foil, stick it in a mug completely covered with water and nuke it. a bit of experimentation and you will determine exactly how many seconds it takes to boil an egg to your liking.

it seems counter intuitive, but was taught to me by a house mate with an iq of 3. on this occasion he out smarted me.

(you are excluding, by wrapping the egg in foil, of nuke-ness, but you are boiling the water around it to a precise measure)

[staringclown]

zaph, on 27 January 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

I've only gone through five this month; one total house fire and two partial.

seriously. wrap an egg in foil, stick it in a mug completely covered with water and nuke it. a bit of experimentation and you will determine exactly how many seconds it takes to boil an egg to your liking.

it seems counter intuitive, but was taught to me by a house mate with an iq of 3. on this occasion he out smarted me.

(you are excluding, by wrapping the egg in foil, of nuke-ness, but you are boiling the water around it to a precise measure)

Intriguing.

I'll have to don my fire proof apron and give it a go. How many seconds do you recommend for soft boiled?

[I'veArrived]

zaph, on 27 January 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

I've only gone through five this month; one total house fire and two partial.

seriously. wrap an egg in foil, stick it in a mug completely covered with water and nuke it. a bit of experimentation and you will determine exactly how many seconds it takes to boil an egg to your liking.

it seems counter intuitive, but was taught to me by a house mate with an iq of 3. on this occasion he out smarted me.

(you are excluding, by wrapping the egg in foil, of nuke-ness, but you are boiling the water around it to a precise measure)

Wow, microwaved hard-boiled eggs - absolute brillance. I've been so totally entrigued by the discussions on the Australian Property party of Simple and Sustainable that I hadn't discovered the recipe threads. If the recipes are anything like the microwaved hard-boiled eggs I'm in for some joy over the weekend!

Thanks for the welcome, I need to get out of trolling mode and start contributing more!

[mattau]

Hmmm. I was recently reading up on the pros and cons of auctions vs private sale in a more theoretical sense.

It seems that in the real world, auctions are becoming less popular - I guess it's due to the fees and the lack of higher bids among buyers.

[cobran20]

zaph, on 27 January 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

seriously. wrap an egg in foil, stick it in a mug completely covered with water and nuke it.

I recall one of the first things taught about microwave ovens was not to put any metallic objects in it, including aluminium foil as it reflects the waves and nukes the oven!

[tor]

cobran20, on 27 January 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

I recall one of the first things taught about microwave ovens was not to put any metallic objects in it, including aluminium foil as it reflects the waves and nukes the oven!

Only a problem if it is earthed I think. My combo oven has metal trays in it and works fine. The metal trays have rubber feet.

Reflecting the rays obviously can't be a problem otherwise you would get microwaved standing in front of it.

[firehawk]

cobran20 said:

I recall one of the first things taught about microwave ovens was not to put any metallic objects in it, including aluminium foil as it reflects the waves and nukes the oven!

The thing about metal in microwaves is, IIRC, that microwaves + metal = electrons being knocked off the metal and eventually sufficient charge building up to cause arcing between the metal and the walls of the oven.
I guess if the foil is submerged in water, it should be safer??

[zaph]

staringclown, on 27 January 2012 - 08:23 AM, said:

Intriguing.

I'll have to don my fire proof apron and give it a go. How many seconds do you recommend for soft boiled?

it's around 3 mins in my microwave, but varies greatly by microwave. once you have it down pat you'll know exactly how many seconds to get it to your liking.

edit - i take no responsibility for the numerous house fires occurring around Australia this morning.

This post has been edited by zaph: 27 January 2012 - 06:29 PM

[tor]

firehawk, on 27 January 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

The thing about metal in microwaves is, IIRC, that microwaves + metal = electrons being knocked off the metal and eventually sufficient charge building up to cause arcing between the metal and the walls of the oven.
I guess if the foil is submerged in water, it should be safer??

The wikipedia article says object without pointed ends generally don't do anything specifically it talks about crumpled al foil. Zaph I assume you wrap the egg quite smoothly?

The water also is going to be hard to turn to plasma (unlike air) I would suspect.

[cobran20]

tor, on 27 January 2012 - 11:46 AM, said:

Only a problem if it is earthed I think. My combo oven has metal trays in it and works fine. The metal trays have rubber feet.

Reflecting the rays obviously can't be a problem otherwise you would get microwaved standing in front of it.

Years ago, my son when he was young, accidentally put a plate in a microwave oven to reheat the food. It was covered in foil. As soon as he started the oven, there were sparks flying everywhere. Fortunately, we stopped it very early.

[zaph]

tor, on 27 January 2012 - 07:57 PM, said:

The wikipedia article says object without pointed ends generally don't do anything specifically it talks about crumpled al foil. Zaph I assume you wrap the egg quite smoothly?

The water also is going to be hard to turn to plasma (unlike air) I would suspect.

Yep. you can also wrap small sections of food in foil. eg - if defrosting a chicken half the wing can be covered to prevent it cooking.

edit - and you all thought tin foil was only good for hats.

This post has been edited by zaph: 27 January 2012 - 10:20 PM

[Sean]

I put one of those tizzy plates with a fine gold line around the edge in a microwave once, and even that was enough to start arcing like crazy.

I suspect maybe submerging it in water protects it from arcing, so the water does double duty? Altho I have seen the thing about putting foil around chicken ends etc.

The microwaves are blocked from escaping by the steel mesh at the front -- the diameter of the holes lets you look in but prevents the particular wavelength of microwaves from escaping. Otherwise the metal case blocks it at the sides.

Now I think of it, there's a whole crazy series on youtube of people putting things in mwave ovens to see what will happen, i.e.try to cause the most spectacular meltdown possible -- lit candles etc. Not recommended.

[Solomon]

Now, if I can just get you guys away from cooking for a minute.

I'm in favour of the move away from auctions.
I regard auctions as playing on an unfavourable aspect of human nature - competitive greed.
Auctions play on the emotions of having to witness another person get what you wanted.
I've always disliked them, and the sooner they become obsolete the better. (Just dreaming, I know.)

I can speak from experience on the few items I've competed for in ebay.
I can't stand not to get it, once I've put in the bid.
I know I should be disciplined, but I always think - maybe just a few dollars more will put me in the lead - and then I go beyond my self-imposed limit.
I've seen it first-hand as young couples think - "only a few thousand more won't matter, when we're already up to $700,000."

I liked the good old days where negotiation was done behind closed doors, between you and the agent.
So called me old fashioned, but I think it will add to the downward pressure on prices for homes, if we have more private sales.

[wim]

Solomon, on 28 January 2012 - 10:52 AM, said:

Now, if I can just get you guys away from cooking for a minute.

I'm in favour of the move away from auctions.
I regard auctions as playing on an unfavourable aspect of human nature - competitive greed.
Auctions play on the emotions of having to witness another person get what you wanted.
I've always disliked them, and the sooner they become obsolete the better. (Just dreaming, I know.)

I can speak from experience on the few items I've competed for in ebay.
I can't stand not to get it, once I've put in the bid.
I know I should be disciplined, but I always think - maybe just a few dollars more will put me in the lead - and then I go beyond my self-imposed limit.
I've seen it first-hand as young couples think - "only a few thousand more won't matter, when we're already up to $700,000."

I liked the good old days where negotiation was done behind closed doors, between you and the agent.
So called me old fashioned, but I think it will add to the downward pressure on prices for homes, if we have more private sales.

I agree although I'd like to see it go further with a requirement to show a single price. No ranges, no price on application, no reverse auctions. Just like when I walk into a supermarket I should be able to walk into a real estate agency and know the price.