Auction sales are not arms-length transactions. Not only do you have the auction fee,
The auction commission can be paid by the seller or it can be by "Buyers Premium" which the buyer pays a % set before the sale on the last high bid. I still think that Buyers Premium should be considered as part of the selling price. After all the Buyers pays the commision when the seller know the broker is going to be charging 10% to sell their property.
but the sales are not publicly offered for a reasonable period of time.
What is a reasonable period of time, I have been marketing some of my auction property for several months, before that they were on the market with a listing broker. Heavy marketing starts 30 days before the auction I have a property that will sell the 21st of June at auction, The budget for this thirty days of marketing is $7500. Lot more being spent now then in the past.
Rather, they're bid at the time, in a matter of minutes, and the bid-mentality can set in.
It is what the market will pay that day. The people in most cases have a couple of open house to view the property, time to make a decision on how much they are willing to spend for the property.
So, you have non-traditional purchasers, in a non-traditional purchase process.
Auction sales are becoming part of the norm. Visit the National Auctioneers Association web site or Williams & Williams web site, or Zip Auctioneers web site or ProxiBid web site or any number of others.
I would discuss and comment on these sales, but use sales from outside of the development, using listings from the project if available.