The weekend auction market saw above-market prices paid for some well-located homes but comparable, if slightly inferior properties tended to underperform.

The trend to highly divisive auction results for similar properties was demonstrated by two auctions in Fitzroy held an hour apart on Saturday.

At one sale, four buyers fought hard for an unusually wide terrace house at 124 Victoria Street.

Quoted by Nelson Alexander at $1.85 million to $2 million, the three-bedroom corner property, which has a renovated rear stables as a separate retreat, instantly attracted a $1.85 million offer from a buyers' advocate representing a local family. The price rocketed to an on-the-market $2,040,000 and kept going until the house was sold to the advocate for $2,478,000.

The auctioneer of this property, Arch Staver, also auctioned a Victorian balcony terrace with a basement apartment at 80 Gore Street.

"It was a bigger house than the Victoria Street property and we didn't get a bid," he said. "Now $2.2 million buys that house and it's got six bedrooms and two bathrooms - it is just one of those situations where buyers are all focusing on one property and ignoring really good opportunities."

The residential market came back strongly at the weekend after last week's year-low 71.7 per cent clearance rate.

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• Related: Click here for Saturday's auction results
• Related: Click here for the Market Snapshot

The Domain Group posted a clearance rate of 78.3 per cent for Saturday's market from 617 reported auction results. This was the highest clearance rate recorded since June 10 and Saturday's result was also higher than the 77.7 per cent reported over the same weekend last year. But agents did not report the results of a further 194 scheduled auctions. Most of these are likely to be properties that were passed in on a vendor bid.

The 508 house auctions reported by agents on Saturday notched up a clearance rate of 77 per cent. By contrast, only 109 auctions of apartments were reported. They scored a clearance rate of 84 per cent, which pushed up the overall clearance rate.

One apartment that punched high was at 8/1083 Glen Huntly Road, Glen Huntly. Advantage Property Consulting said the large, 86-square-metre unit drew offers from five bidders, a mix of first-home buyers and investors.

The Biggin & Scott-listed property sold to a mature investor for $648,000, well up on the $600,000 reserve.

At other auctions in inner Melbourne, downsizers won out as they trumped offers made by upgrading families and first-time buyers.

Buyers' advocate Miriam Sandkuhler, from Property Mavens, bid on behalf of a client for a three-bedroom townhouse at 2A Albion Street, South Yarra, but missed out to a downsizer.

She was representing a second-time home buyer looking to upgrade from an apartment to a larger dwelling.

The South Yarra property was quoted by Hocking Stuart at $1.1 million to $1.2 million. However, it sold to the downsizer, who had recently sold a large home in the Stonnington council area, for $1.4 million, well ahead of the $1.21 million reserve. Four bidders competed.

Ms Sandkuhler said the market was being heavily influenced by debt-free downsizers who were selling in expensive suburbs and then buying new properties, either for investment reasons or to live in.

"Downsizers are so cashed up that it is just impossible for some people who are trying to buy up or buy into the market, to get in, particularly if they are hamstrung with tight borrowing limits," she said.

"The generation of baby boomers have had decades of tax deductions and superannuation incentives. Younger generations, like generation X and below, have to fund their own retirement and they don't have the tax deduction benefits that the older generation have had.

"You also have the first-home buyers trying to get into the market. That is a massive struggle for them, so more and more we are going to see a disparity between those who have and those who have not."

Melbourne's northern suburbs punched above their weight at the weekend, producing strong results for most sellers.

Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said that following the lower results on the August 12-13 weekend, clearance rates in the higher-priced, inner-suburban regions had improved. However, he said the inner east remained a clear under-performer but on significantly higher listings.

The north-east of the city led the market at the weekend with an 89 per cent clearance rate with 81 properties sold from 91 reported auctions. The next highest region was the north with an 85.9 per cent clearance rate. It was followed by the west with 85.2 per cent, the inner city with 77.3 per cent, the inner south with 77.2 per cent, the outer east with 74.7 per cent and the south-east with 73.3 per cent.

The inner east, which has been the engine room for house price growth for much of the past five years, was the market straggler with a 67.4 per cent clearance rate.

Mr Staver is expecting a buyer-friendly spring market.

"I think the pendulum has shifted somewhat to a buyer's favour," he said. "An astute buyer who has a bit of energy - and by that I mean is willing to look at everything that is out there and has the ability to attend as many auctions as possible - just might find themselves in the right place at the right time."