Gold Coast mega auction shows strong signs that market is turning upwards

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ALL OFFERS: Eager property buyers jam into the multi-auction on the Gold Coast yesterday. Picture: Brendan Radke/Gold Coast Bulletin Source: Gold Coast Bulletin


SIGNS the property market has turned flashed yesterday as the Gold Coast attracted fierce bidding and high clearance rates at a major auction series.A crowd of more than 500 potential bidders, many of them from interstate, crammed into The Event auction, conducted by Ray White Surfers Paradise, to bid on 102 homes and investment properties. By 3pm, 247 people had registered to bid, while 54 bidders attended by telephone.Bargain hunters were out in force at the largest residential auction in the country, with bids starting low and the hammer coming down after bidding wars in $1000 and even $500 increments.Hot deals included 746 Currumbin Creek Rd, a 42ha property that was formerly a bird park, which sold for just $851,000 after being placed in the hands of receivers. It was purchased in 2002 for $2 million, according to RP Data.While all the properties sold well under their peaks, realistic vendors ensured that sales were constant and many properties sold above the reserve, according to Andrew Bell, chief executive of Ray White Surfers Paradise.In the first section of 24 auctions, 23 or the 24 homes on the market sold either prior to the auction or under the hammer a record clearance rate of 96 per cent."The signs that a property market is making a come back can be seen when offers are made before a property goes public, we get offers from multiple parties and properties start to sell above the listing price and that's what we've had today," Mr Bell said.Mr Bell said tightening vacancy rates and rising rents were encouraging first home buyers and investors back into the market at a time when the number of listings was falling."Our listings have been down by seven percent," Mr Bell said. "When most people think we're at the bottom, or it is close, it is usually past."Bruce Carson, a stainless steel fabrication business owner from Silverdale in south west Sydney, bought two investment units - a two bedroom for $243,000 in the Kensington on the Park and a single bedroom apartment for $180,000, both in Southport. He said he was attracted to the coast for its "good buying".http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/auction-drops-hammer-on-the-tough-times/story-e6freoof-1226563039697

It's Getting Hard To Be A Gold Bull These Days

Driven higher over the last month due largely to the prospect of increasing central bank money printing, gold and silver challenged important price levels early last week but failed to hold them, spurring technical selling that led to their sharpest weekly declines since mid-December.A short-term resolution to U.S. budget deficit troubles and yet another gold import tax hike in India were negative developments for precious metals, while central bank actions and strong demand for physical silver were positives, however, traders were clearly more influenced by the former than the latter.It's getting hard to be a gold bull these days and even more difficult to be optimistic about mining stocks as noted in this article last week.For the week, the gold price fell 1.5 percent, from $1,684.70 an ounce to $1,659.30, and silver dropped 2.2 percent, from $31.89 an ounce to $31.18. Gold is now down 0.9 percent this year, 13.7 percent below its 2011 high, and silver is up 2.7 percent in 2013, down 37.0 percent from its high almost two years ago.Technical selling on Wednesday sent precious metals tumbling as the failure of the gold price to reach the important $1,700 an ounce mark and silver stalling below $32.50 an ounce reportedly caused speculators to liquidate long positions. This led to a tumbling silver price and the biggest one-day decline in three weeks for gold that, as shown below, is now well back of where it was at this point during the last three major corrections going back seven years.http://seekingalpha.com/article/1135811-it-s-getting-hard-to-be-a-gold-bull-these-days
From Zero Hedge 

Guest Post: Why Employment Is Dead in the Water

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,Employment is dead in the water because opportunities for organic expansion are few and the cost basis of doing business in the U.S. keeps rising. Let's start by reviewing the basics of employment in the U.S. Courtesy of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, here is the non-institutional civilian population of the U.S. (Note that the Civilian Non-institutional Population With No Disability, 16 years and over (LNU00074593)--roughly speaking, the workforce of the nation-- is 215 million). 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-27/guest-post-why-employment-dead-water