Peter's message - be careful when you are looking at the auction clearance rate on a Saturday - it's not actually telling you what's happening in the specific marketplace that you want to buy in! The number that is presented by the media is an aggregate of all the markets across Sydney. In Sydney's market at the moment, there is a significant difference between the South/West markets and all other markets, and a "two-speed" market is occuring. Here is some further information about the exact statistics, commented on by Domain commenator Dr Andrew Wilson, noting a clearance rate in the west of 39.1% compared with 76.9% in the lower north shore (both from last weekend's 897 auctions).