I went to the Hudson and Marshall Los Angeles/Orange County auction in Anaheim on November 10. I wrote down what each property went for at the auction. However, I only stayed for the first two hours, and had to leave for prior commitments. So I only have data through property #163.

Here's the number everyone wants to know: the average property went for 69.60% of the asking price.

Read more below on how I came up with this number, and other caveats.

Most of the properties at the auction are listed in the MLS. So I use the most recent MLS listing price to compute the discount. I excluded properties that I was not able to find in the MLS (there aren't that many).

As I already mentioned, I only have data through property #163. Some of these properties have been sold prior to the auction, and they were excluded. I don't know how much they were sold for.

Hudson and Marshall lists and auctions their properties in price order. The less expensive properties are auctioned first, with the more expensive properties coming at the end. Since I only stayed for the first third of the auction, my computed discount is only for the lower third of the market -- mostly condos and single family homes in more suburban parts of LA and Orange County. Though most affordable, this is also the market most affected by the subprime credit crunch. So it's difficult to extrapolate the discount to the entire market. However, higher end properties in the area also have their own problems -- Jumbo mortages are no longer easy to get.

Finally, a few notes about the crowd and atmosphere -- there are a lot less people than the REDC auction in October. However, those who showed up seem to be serious bidders. There are many people armed with laptops and wireless Internet, and reams of printed data. There are many realtors as well, registering their buyers and networking for new clients. So while the crowd is smaller than the REDC auction, it was a quality crowd. There aren't many families around.