House Auction- Danbury, Connecticut

[Artem Lopatchenko]

I just came back from the very first house auction I have ever attended.  I went initially to see how the process works and observe, I was the only person to show up.  I got to talking with the auctioneer and she informed me that the deposit is 10% of appraisal price (19,500 per state judicial website), however a later appraisal lowered the price to $175,000.  She then told me that the opening bid was $200K, made by the bank.

Is it common for banks to offer an initial bid so much higher than appraised value during foreclosure auctions?  

For anyone interested, I went to this property.

https://sso.eservices.jud.ct.gov/foreclosures/Publ...