Hammer time is on the horizon!

With an outstanding result at our auction on Saturday, Check out the article below that appeared in the Herald Sun:

REAL estate agents began reappearing on Melbourne nature strips yesterday as the auction season slowly emerges from its Christmas-New Year slumber.

Auction numbers remain low, with little more than 100 properties going under the hammer around the state this weekend, but will increase to about 350 by mid-February.

While many agents and vendors would rather forget last year, two interest rate cuts and the promise of a February reduction has lifted hopes that the number of properties being sold – if not prices – will pick up throughout 2012.

“It’s coming to a stage where people are starting to see value in the market,” Ray White Blackburn agent Mark Brilliant said, after wrapping up a sale at the first property his office put under the hammer this year.

About 150 gathered at 75 Springfield Rd, Blackburn, for the auction of the three-bedroom home which opened on a genuine bid of $450,000 and sold for $563,000.

Buyers Rachel and Luke Burrows had been looking to upgrade from their Ivanhoe home for months.

“We’ve found it tough finding a place that has everything we want so we are really happy with the result,” Mr Burrows said.

Melbourne listings dropped by 8 per cent in December but remain 43 per cent higher than this time last year with 48,586 properties for sale, according to SQM Research.

The firm’s head, Louis Christopher, said while national housing prices are expected to rise between 4 and 7 per cent this year, prices would remain flat in the Victorian capital.

“Melbourne will be behind the national trend for at least the first three quarters of the year because of the excessive stock levels,” he said.

Taken from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/auction-numbers-expected-to-rise-up-to-350-by-mid-february/story-fn6bfkm6-1226256276095