Again I'm compelled to correct another youngster (no insult intended). To say that: "no one (in Australia) has never been burnt before," (presuming you mean in the RE market) is false and misleading (go to my recent posts). What you should have said was: no one (with the exception of Perth, Darwin and abandoned mining towns residents) "IN YOUR GENERATION" has been burnt before. Also, I fail to see how "a soft landing is sometimes more painful than a hard landing," of which I presume you have no experience. Ah, the innocence of youth! Again, no offence intended.
In addition, auction clearance rates are not the best indicator of RE market volatility. They are one indicator, and not necessarily indicative of interest rate rises. One must take in to account all market influences, external and internal, in order to form a complete picture. As scientists are want to say: "nothing in isolation."
