themerlin

I would say it was more the traffic issue, 1 hour commute now might be 2 hours in a few years time.

I think there will be alternative fuels round when we run out of oil, and if the worse happens you can always get a horse or a chuck powered go cart.

Vim Fuego

A fair perspective, we could not make our week work, logistically, without 2 cars (diverse working arrangements, childcare, etc) in any case so we did not think in those terms when we bought our house (we wanted some space so closer to the city was not an option really).

On a rough calculation our 2nd car (a non-child-friendly MGB) costs about $50 a week to run but I also car-share with the MIL so it only really shuttles 15 minutes each-way to and from the houses. And of course, that $50 doesn't include the purchase price of a runabout ($5000 minimum?).

As for oil price driving inner-city property prices up, I'm not so sure, I think people and human nature is driving the prices up and it's more to do with wanting to be in a 'good' area than matters of petrol price ... but that's just my opinion, obviously.

Fair point about 'what level?' before people will abandon their cars ... I think a lot would be sacrificed before an automobile ... and that is probably a sad state of affairs.

Vim Fuego

There is always the train option though, the service is pretty good here in my opinion. In our case 15 mins to station in runabout, 40 mins to City.

Yeh, some days you don't get a seat but I'm on my arse all day anyway ...

TrickyTree

When we came over we bought 2 properties for $620,000 (total).
As a comparison our place in Forest Lake (4x2) cost $320,000 (2 years ago) next door to ours (smaller 3x2) has just gone on the market at $420,000.

themerlin

I stopped that when they closed half of Brunswick st station

Did the motor bike thing for a while until I decided Russian rulet was a safer then a bike in rush hour traffic.

down under

hi vim,off topic,do you know anything about kooralbyn

ozzieeagle

Just looked at the poll as it stands at present, with 90 votes, 70 people are under the 675,000 figure, whereas 20 people are above it. Which equates to approx 25 pct of UK migrants are able to afford well above the median cost of housing. No wonder Australia is after UK migrants at present.

My own conclusion from that is,those people are bringing in well over 300,000 Aud in liquid assets, and are going to earn at least 150,000 Aud per annum as a minimum.... Anyone else suprised about this ? Because I am.

renth

Plenty of pommies have made a lot of money on the UK property market.

ozzieeagle

To reduce the Mortgage to around 300,000 Aud, Which I reckon takes about 100,000 Aud of income to have any sort of Viable life, They would have to be bringing into Aussie Circa 165,000 quid, Thats a lot of capitol gain for the averaged age migrant of around 34 years old. 165,000 quid capitol gain, over say 10 years assuming they bought at age 24, is a hell of a lot of a property gain.

Plus people with an income of 150,000 Aud upwards, would surely for the most part be white collar workers, and coming to what is allegedly a far more restrictive employment market for people in the white collar arena. Like I say I'm dead surpsied. Moreso that people that expect to earn that income would want to come to Aussie where job and career prospects would be much worse ?

I must be assuming too much lol !


Ahh just figured maybe a lot are business owners. Now thats a subject for another thread.

Mipik

Coming back to the house price/distance to CBD (or work) issue.
I would say that it is not so much a price of oil as value of your own time that makes the difference.

Lte's say you can save an hour a day, work pays 25$/h.
Company would pay you 50% overtime rate for that time.
That gives 37.5$ per hour at 250 days a year gives you 9375$ per year gross.

Makes sense as well?

ozzieeagle

Very good point, plus factor in possible child care costs, for some, and other hidden costs on top of the necessity to own two cars.

steve99

I agree, commute time would be a major factor in deciding where to live if I came over now (as it was when I did)
Commute and the knock on effects were probably one of the driving factors in deciding to relocate here. I really cannot understand how people think its acceptable to have to drive more than about 30mins each way to get to work, I used to spend anything from around an hour and a half on a good day to upto 4hrs of my day getting to work and I know of others that regularily spend more. Its crazy, I appreciate you go where the work is, but you factor the time in and class it as work, then divide your annual salary up by say a 40hr week plus say another 20hrs of sitting in traffic and the hourly rate your earning looks pretty dismal...
You've also got the impact it has on the rest of your life, the restrictions it puts on your social/family life etc...

Id much rather commit to a higher mortgage and live in somewhere with a better location than go back to wasting time stuck in a car.
Having roughly thought the numbers through id probably say over the life of an average mortgage id probably be prepared to commit upto an extra $100K to a mortgage to reduce the travel time from an hour each way to 30mins each way.
I have no idea how the costs saved through that reduced commute would offset the $100K borrowed.

themerlin

Or maybe the ones who spent lots on there house like to show off about it.
Who know what they say about statistics

Vim Fuego

I've heard coming in from that line is a bummer

Never been a motorcyclist but my experience with a push-bike would confirm your observation.

Vim Fuego

Nothing I'm afraid, I'd have to google it to be sure where it is