Good post mate sounds like you have your head screwed on to me.
If you have lots of equity and are making payments easily then it is worth keeping your own house I reckon because of the CGT exemption, without worrying too much about it's worth.
You gotta live somewhere.
On the other hand, if I was maxed out to the eyeballs in debt and had little or no equity I would be taking the loss and getting out. Prices are not going to rise anytime soon and the risk is still to the downside imho. This doesn't mean they'll crash 40% though.
And your observsation about Vendor Bids is 100% correct. They shouldn't be included in any reporting of clearances. If there was a private bidder at a certain price which was the last bid, but it didn't make reserve that should be reported as the last value. IF the vendor bid is the last bid put then it means nothing they cannot sell it to themselves.
I don't understand why vendor bids are allowed at all.
