Auction clearance rates to me measure the pulse/mood of the market, it does not necessarily have direct causal relationship to prices. And yes, the measure in itself is not perfect, but the trend is, which is clearly above last years rates and maintaining. In all likelihood, the clearance rate will be adjusted downwards as all results are submitted, as has been the reality for the past few months, but maybe a couple of % points.
http://www.rs.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=ars
Why not use RP Data results at 57.5% ? Different results from different sources on supposedly the same events (auctions). If there is a discrepancy then which source do you use? For such an important indicator I would have thought we have one regulated provider who works on a standard reporting method each week. Take the REIV figure of 1053 auctions with 690 selling and 363 being passed in. Of the 690 sold 99 were sold before even GOING TO AUCTION. But these 99 sales count toward the auction results
How can you take an auction result report and effectively judge it on it's merits or compare week to week or month to month when a variable like pre-auction sales is included in the overall result