House prices

[Surly]

I do appreciate hearing from those who had to walk 16 miles to work through the snow, up hill, both ways.

In all honesty, the housing market has always been pretty fucked... But average wages are NOTHING like keeping up with the ever increasing cost of living, particularly the cost of owning your own home. I believe the "average" wage in Australia is about $55k median. Median house price is about 550k in WA. Am I to assume when you paid $38k for your house, you were earning $4k/year?

I'm not going to insult you by suggesting you were going through easy times, but you need to understand that now the reality is that home ownership is getting ever further out of the grasp of the average person/family.

It is more relevant to compare median income with the cost of servicing a mortgage. When interest rates were close to three times what they have been lately the house needed to be one third the price to be as affordable.

If rates ever return to the high teens house prices will tumble but the affordability probably won't.

cheers
Surly

[agrid]

...In all honesty, the housing market has always been pretty fucked... But average wages are NOTHING like keeping up with the ever increasing cost of living, particularly the cost of owning your own home. I believe the "average" wage in Australia is about $55k median. Median house price is about 550k in WA. Am I to assume when you paid $38k for your house, you were earning $4k/year?
...

I think I was earning about $7,000 a year back then, remember I was barely in my twenties and it was a long time ago. I think the calculation provided by another poster was how much income was left after living expenses to put towards a home loan and that's what I used to figure 3 years of saving for a deposit. The median house price might be $550 but you can get them for much less. I'd sell you my house in Koondoola on an 870sqm block for $350k tomorrow. I paid $120k for it about seven years ago and if I remember correctly people were complaining about house prices back then.

[rod]

That's all well and good - the variable part of it was as high is it ever got and the fixed part was low. Now it's vice-versa.

[shmoo]

I think I was earning about $7,000 a year back then, remember I was barely in my twenties and it was a long time ago. I think the calculation provided by another poster was how much income was left after living expenses to put towards a home loan and that's what I used to figure 3 years of saving for a deposit. The median house price might be $550 but you can get them for much less. I'd sell you my house in Koondoola on an 870sqm block for $350k tomorrow. I paid $120k for it about seven years ago and if I remember correctly people were complaining about house prices back then.

The fact is that all that is absolutely irrelevant.

You are faced with the market conditions of the time. The fact that you were such a battler that you had to sell your left little toe in 1973 to buy a house is neither here nor there. It didnt mean anything in 1974 and it doesnt mean anything now.

[Ryven]

It is more relevant to compare median income with the cost of servicing a mortgage. When interest rates were close to three times what they have been lately the house needed to be one third the price to be as affordable.

If rates ever return to the high teens house prices will tumble but the affordability probably won't.

cheers
Surly

This is a fair point. However, that'd be assuming a $40k house was the median. In the 1980s, my mother was looking at property in the $20-30k mark...

The fact is that all that is absolutely irrelevant.

You are faced with the market conditions of the time. The fact that you were such a battler that you had to sell your left little toe in 1973 to buy a house is neither here nor there. It didnt mean anything in 1974 and it doesnt mean anything now.

I'm going to disagree with you, shmoo. My plan is to gather real estate magazines from the early 80s and make offers on people's houses. "What do you mean you want $600,000? If you see this here, the place next door sold for $32,000." "What do you mean you live in Clarkson? Clarkson does not exist. Fuck off!"

[Nickerz]

The whole thing is shit scary. And the comments are right - everyone's situation is different. First home buyers are always mentioned, but what about us growing contingent of 'separated'?

I had the aussie dream - beautiful custom built solar passive pad, more equity than mortgage, everything I could ever want. Except a happy marriage That gone, split the equity, prices have gone bananas and bang - I can't afford to get back into the market.

I've been watching closely for 3 years now and still we dodge the bullet - WA just keeps on inflating. With the mega infrastructure projects happening around this state (not just Gorgon) there's still an influx, and where there's demand and low stock, there's rising prices - it screws us every time. Even when the next pinch comes, the govt. driven infrastructure projects will push us to keep digging holes in this wee state and we're sitting on gas, gold, uranium, iron ore etc etc etc. Best place to be.

The bargains are already gone. I just bit the bullet and went for it. Time to get back into massive debt and wear it before I get left behind for good.

The one thing I'd say is transit orient - be within 2km of a station. When peak oil hits for real, you wanna be walking, cycling or on public transport...

[Ryven]

The one thing I'd say is transit orient - be within 2km of a station. When peak oil hits for real, you wanna be walking, cycling or on public transport...

I'd have to agree here. Less on a paranoid scale, but I'm trying to rely less on my vehicles and utilize public transport more. I wish they'd increase peak services so I could take my push bike on the train.

[Sprint]

Dude, you were claiming 'house' prices are at $30,000 in the USA. They aren't. Tralier prices are not house prices.

I know you're a seppo and all so it's taking you a while to catch up, but are you with me yet?

All your neighbours will be American... Fuck that.

Mattsa, Agird is correct. Douche is the term for washing (in common usage, specifically washing out one's vagina after sex. A douche bag, I'm assuming, is where one collects the proceeds from such an action. It's spelt 'd-o-u-c-h-e' because it originates in French.

Are you trolling? Or do you genuinely own and live in a trailer? And are you telilng me that $30,000 US gets you a trailer? Not only that, but a trailer in a region that's almost third world, rife with crime, low on literacy and where the tooth-person ratio is about 2-1? Fuck that. I'd rather pay $400,000 to live in a real house in an area where, apart from the southern cross tatoos and aussie flags in the windows people are actually human.

Ok, you're a troll then. This thread is about how awesome 'house' prices are in the land of the big dumb seppo, but you're not actually talking about houses, you're talking about trailers in a shit fuck area. Which is a joke.

For the record, you can buy a trailer 'home' in a shitty country town for about $10,000 in Australia too if you want to. Just most people don't.

Nice work Jacob.
OP = funny, articulate and intelligent.... and then there's YOU.

S.

[agrid]

The fact is that all that is absolutely irrelevant.

You are faced with the market conditions of the time. The fact that you were such a battler that you had to sell your left little toe in 1973 to buy a house is neither here nor there. It didnt mean anything in 1974 and it doesnt mean anything now.

How so? Some commented that it is tough to buy a house now because affordability is so low, so I pointed out that affordability wasn't much better in the early eighties and that if people are prepared to make some sacrifices, sell their big toes to get on the real estate merry-go-round they will benefit in years to come. Sitting around moaning isn't going to help at all. Surely the house I bought in Koondoola seven years ago for $120,000 wasn't that tough an ask but many young people seem to want the McMansion with home theatre and spa.

[mark_r]

You're wrong. I wasn't lucky and I didn't buy when house prices were reasonable. I read the other day that housing affordability is at its worst since the "early eighties". I bought in the early eighties.

No point in comparing personal circumstances but like you I would have had to save for three years to make up the deposit especially as I earned below the average wage. So I lived at home with my parents for 18 months and took out a personal loan for the rest. No handout from the family and no first home buyer's grant. I got together with my especially my girlfriend/wife and purchased a modest house in the inner city for $38,000 because I figured it would go up because of the supposed fuel crisis. There was a much nicer place up the road for $45,000 but there was no way we could afford that.

Can anyone afford for house prices to continue to rise at the same rate that they have for the last 10+ years.
If the median house was about 4x Annual earnings 15 years ago and are close to 8x now, would it be a good thing for anyone for them to be 16x annual earnings in another 15 years?

[richie_b]

it's ok you can just get a 100 year loan, it's kinda like renting but you get to risk your future!!