pomtastic

It really pisses me off when all the Baby Boomers say, - "We had it hard when we first bought our house back in 1960/70/80, we struggled, blah, blah, blah...." No they didn't, they had to work HALF the man hours to pay off their home compared to today!! And, the bank wouldn't lend you ridiculous amounts compared to your earnings back then.

asprilla

Can't wait for the bubble to burst. Any minute now.

mpgrewal

The bubble can never burst as long as the residents of Australia are increasing. Big Australia will have Big prices for everything. Lets accept that and plan accordingly.

Gibbo

Houses in the 60s/70s cost 7.9 times annual salary. I bought one then so I know they did struggle. A carpenter's wage was $45 a week and teacher's $90 a fortnight.

Steve2009

What has obesity got to do with anything?

pomtastic

Please tell me how you went about getting a mortgage 6-7 times your wage back in the 60's & 70's. Did you ask your friendly bank manager or was is another way, loan shark? That would be like getting an equivalent mortgage of 20 times your salary today - impossible unless by dodgy means!! $45 a week for a carpenter and nurse is bloody great wage if the average house costs $7K - $12K and cost of living is equivalent.

Historically banks always lent 3 x your annual salary, 2.5 joint salary. It's a recent phenomonem that you are able to borrow more, hence the lift off in prices.

pomtastic

The pool of potential buyers lessens and lessens as prices go up, people can only afford so much.

I'm already seeing this in Perth, plenty of $800K+ homes sitting for sale in the outer suburbs. These homes were built for cashed up Poms 4-10 years ago who would buy these as their first homes, but because of the exchange rate these homes are just sitting idle, unsold and building up and I'm gonna grab one of these beauties when they come off some more in a couple of years time! You see, people just can't pay 'whatever' the going price is for homes -it doesn't work like that.

US, Ireland, Spain, UK, etc, etc, etc had plenty of migrants ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

swigski

UK has nearly 3 times the poulation of Australia. The residents you talk about will stop coming if they are unable to afford to live here!!

kemiktheviking

Houses in Aus lack character and really just are not worth the money. Single brick fibro single pain glass cheap construction.

Friends beeing looking to spend 500,000 cash in Perth and all they have seen is greedy gits who have done nothing in their house since they bought it 40 years ago.................buy a home and you will never loose buy a home as an investments and remeber the saying investments go up and DOWN.......

Although REIWA say there is another 12 suburbs in the median 100,000,000 bracket .......................

If things are too expensive people buy elsewhere and Australians are renowned for traveling Perth is just a Dubai with ORE once the Ore is gone whats left?

freebo

Net migration is a small percentage of population, rises are being largely driven by the expectation of future profit, the "greater fool" mentality.

pomtastic

Have you noticed that the Greater Fool is now dropping off over the last couple of months?

Mortgage commitments are way down in Jan/Feb even though the mortgage size is rising? If that was a share on the stock market, rising price on low volume it would be a massive SELL signal.

The next few months are going to be interesting if commitments keep falling. It's going to be the turning point I've been waiting for unless the Govt comes up with another way to inflate the bubble through bribes and cash handouts -wouldn't surprise me.

Gibbo

Building societies were where most people got their loans- no loan sharks. The houses cost a bit more than $7K- $12K. Closer to $20K,more if you had it, for house and land. Most people had 95% mortgages payable over 25years. Wifes' earnings were not considered by the lending bodies. Most stayed at home when they had children.
Whether you choose to believe what I've said or not is your perogative but I know that it's fact.
Not such a "bloody great wage" when you had 3 sons to bring up.

pomtastic

You must of bought a way above average priced house then - see below, or write to Craig James at Commsec and tell him he's fibbing in the article!!!

I know many, many couples who cannot afford to have kids today because they need full time double incomes to pay for their homes. Having kids is now a luxury for many and staying at home bringing them up is impossible - full time day care is the only option. All because of higher housing costs - as you said, most stayed at home looking after their kids back in your day.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/...-1225837935983

Gibbo

The article is about Perth. I know little of housing conditions in Perth now and nothing of them 50 years ago. I live in Sydney. I bought an average 3 bed house, which had an average pricetag. I wish I had lived in Perth as I would, as would the majority of mortgage holders here, have loved to have had a mortgage of $4.5K. Mine was $17.5K. Interest rates weren't always low. I think the high was around 16%.
I am horrified at the the mortgages young people saddle themselves with. My youngest son has just got one and it worries me sick. Thankfully, he only borrowed what he could comfortably afford on his salary so doesn't have to stop living to service the mortgage. The thing that really bothers me is that he could have borrowed twice as much as he did based purely on his salary! Obviously, lots of young couples do this because they want all the "bells and whistles" right away. The lending bodies should start saving them from themselves!

jeppy

Sorry looks like they have got it right! RBA predicts another property boom sept 2009
.they seem to know far more far sooner than us surfs.
I checked out these links after hearing on the radio last week about a severe housing shortage by 2015 if the government doesnt fast track the release of more land ,they say there is 40% less this year than last year probably due to the fact of all the first time buyers snapping up the land with the fact of the first home buyers grant of 21k, they also said there was already a land shortage in wa.
wa saw an increase of 68000 people last year of which 43000 were from over seas.

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/res...hortage.../11/ -

uttertrash.wordpress.com/.../rba-predicts-another-property-market-boom/ -