Thoughts? Same as before - baby boomers ability to negative gear investment properties made them rich and stuffed it for the next generations.

It now takes 3x longer to pay off the average house on the average wage, than it did back in the 1960's. That is really sad. Yes the avergae house is more flash than back then and the 'boomers blame the modern family desires - but not 3x more flash. Even the crappiest house on offer is a lot more expensive in relative terms than in the past.

We have the 3rd highest priced housing in the world. That is insane for a country that has so much land, privilege, opportunity....

You should not be able to negative gear investment properties any more than you can provision of food and water - the other basic necessities of life.

Greed has buggered housing.

harry potter said..
Australian average house price ... $580,000

Will buy you a very old 2 bedroom in our area. Hang on, nope, not even close.

Sailhack said...
^^^...and yet can buy about 2.5 very comfortable 3 bedroom brick houses here!

Frankston north maybe.

Pines estate bargain!!

There are plenty of house and land packages less than 40min from Melbournes CBD that can be had for less than $350,000

These are brand new houses usually 3-4 bedroom with no stamp duty applicable.

www.realestate.com.au/house-and-land-packages/mernda-vic-3754/

www.realestate.com.au/new-homes/new-house+land-in-craigieburn,+vic+3064/list-1

www.realestate.com.au/new-homes/new-house+land-in-cranbourne,+vic+3977/list-1

There really is no excuse.... Young people can easily own their own home if they are prepared to sacrifice some of their WANTS and live where they can afford to.

We need more states. With our limited number of capital cities, we're trying to cram an increasing population into too small an area.

Go for a drive across Europe, and you'll see how they fit so many people into smaller areas...the population is spread out. Their societies developed over centuries so they have lots of smaller established towns everywhere. For some reason, we are doing just the opposite, with dying country towns and everyone moving into the big smoke.

harry potter said..
There are plenty of house and land packages less than 40min from Melbournes CBD that can be had for less than $350,000

These are brand new houses usually 3-4 bedroom with no stamp duty applicable.

www.realestate.com.au/house-and-land-packages/mernda-vic-3754/

www.realestate.com.au/new-homes/new-house+land-in-craigieburn,+vic+3064/list-1

www.realestate.com.au/new-homes/new-house+land-in-cranbourne,+vic+3977/list-1

There really is no excuse.... Young people can easily own their own home if they are prepared to sacrifice some of their WANTS and live where they can afford to.

"Package price excludes external lighting, customer account opening fees, stamp duty on land, legal fees and conveyancing costs including titles and property report..." (whatever that means).

These prices possibly don't include the driveway, fencing, paving, etc. The blocks are not evenly priced. The cheap ones are aligned to a busy road, or are smaller, etc.

Having said that, making it $400.000, still not too bad and if you can save $80.000 for deposit, you avoid loan insurance fees, and your interest is $14000 - $15000 a year.
A rent of $400 per week makes $20.800.

If you borrow all $450.000 - to cover for the insurance and other fees, the repayment rate is still around $20.000.

One can buy a 3/1 or 3/2 house for $350.000 to $400.000 in Two Rocks but then you need to drive to Butler 10 minutes, park, and ride the train to the city for another 35-40 minutes.

However, young people like to live in Brunswick, Leederville, Subiaco, etc.

Harrow said..
We need more states. With our limited number of capital cities, we're trying to cram an increasing population into too small an area.

Go for a drive across Europe, and you'll see how they fit so many people into smaller areas...the population is spread out. Their societies developed over centuries so they have lots of smaller established towns everywhere. For some reason, we are doing just the opposite, with dying country towns and everyone moving into the big smoke.

Hey, that's my theory too! If we were like the USA we would be more spread out and each area would have its own need to have centralised services.

I think we need to build a new capital city on the border between each existing state, and start from there.

I think if Albury Wodonga had the same employment opportunities as Sydney, I would move there in a heartbeat.

Newly developed residential land in Bundaberg is around $165/sq metre.

You can buy any number of timber homes on 1,000 sq metre blocks for $200,000 or less = $200/sq metre or less.

If the house is half decent it will rent for $250/week minimum. Go figure.

Its all relative.

In country Victoria you can purchase land for as little as $25,000 for half acre. But what does that get you?

A drive of over 40km each way each day to work, thats in excess of 400-500km per week with little comertition at the petrol station resulting in unleaded being up around atm $1.38 and averaging around $1.53 most days that makes it dam expensive just to get to and home from work.

What about wear and tear on cars? At 2000km + per month in travel, it doesnt take long before its time to service the car, and depending on how much travel the car has done, services can get dam expensive.

What about wages? Well with the cost of living being so high, you would expect wages to follow suit. Well it doesn't and is quite he opposite in that if you are lucky enough to find a job in rural australia then yoiu will find that unless you specialise and are top of the field with your expertise, then you will find yourself struggling on wages that are balanced at the very tip of being below the minimum wage line.

That reminds me anyone want to purchase a residential block stunning rural Victoria with spectacular mountain views, all for only $37.50 per square meter, it's priced for a quick sale.

Mark _australia said..
Why? Greed.

The word "greed" plays to the emotions really well, and you get to blame someone! [shakes fist at old people]

The reason Baby Boomers (and Generation X - shhhh) have invested so much into property is because, well, where else are you going to get a return? The stock market has been flat since before Baby Boomers' failing memory or Gen. X can even remember. And interest rates have been at record lows too. Factor in that you can highly gear property and the attraction is obvious. Yes, there are other investments people can make but it's mostly stocks and/or property.

People correctly chose property.

CrossStep said..
Its all relative.

In country Victoria you can purchase land for as little as $25,000 for half acre. But what does that get you?

A drive of over 40km each way each day to work, thats in excess of 400-500km per week with little comertition at the petrol station resulting in unleaded being up around atm $1.38 and averaging around $1.53 most days that makes it dam expensive just to get to and home from work.

What about wear and tear on cars? At 2000km + per month in travel, it doesnt take long before its time to service the car, and depending on how much travel the car has done, services can get dam expensive.

What about wages? Well with the cost of living being so high, you would expect wages to follow suit. Well it doesn't and is quite he opposite in that if you are lucky enough to find a job in rural australia then yoiu will find that unless you specialise and are top of the field with your expertise, then you will find yourself struggling on wages that are balanced at the very tip of being below the minimum wage line.

That reminds me anyone want to purchase a residential block stunning rural Victoria with spectacular mountain views, all for only $37.50 per square meter, it's priced for a quick sale.

That's your country Vic...here the wages are reasonably good with good employment opportunities, I filled up at the servo late last week for $1.12 (Diesel)...and my office is 1.5km walk from home whilst my kid's school is <1km from home.

1950's BV 3 bed house on 900m2 block with 2 living areas (although needing some work) with 'minor' views of a harbour & working port a block from hospital, 5min walk from main street for sale at $385k...

It's not all B&W, ie; 'high-priced' City or 'low-income' country - there are some sweet 'grey' areas in between if you look in the right places.



Also agree with cisco re; lifestyle. I haven't been to Bundy, but have a couple of mates that grew up there - sounds like a nice place to relax.