maggy

Hubby is a painter and has not had to worry about work for the last 4 years its been flooding in but of late its been tough.

He was out of work for 5 weeks and we were beginning to panic but things have started to look up agian.

Mags

Hutch

Couple of observations. 1) I'm not a government official. 2) I'm talking about this particular part of Oz, not the UK - haven't got a clue (and nor do I give a shit) what's going on in blighty. 3) It's completely irrelevant what's happening outside Oz (in this instance), as every country is different - the UK is considerably more ****ed than Oz is.

But to your main question. I have no facts and figures (though they're fairly worthless anyway) just happens that three of my very good friend are real estate agents. They've all said the same thing to me - that property is shifting in a way it hasn't done for several years. In this particular part of NSW the bottom was reached a long time before the 'toxic debt' issue brought the world's financial system to its knees - so I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if things started happening here first too. Yes, you could argue that my realtor chums are doing the age old 'talking the market up' thing - but they have no reason to with me - I'm not buying or selling and as I say, they're mates. Besides, one of them's sold so many properties in the last month, that he just put a sizeable deposit down on a fishing boat. Plus there's local news stories like this and this which kind of back up the comments that I 'spouted'.

ABCDiamond

One of the problems is that people see the high rising prices that are mentioned in the News, but don't see the others.

For example:

The following figures are from Australian Bureau of Statistics figures and show the average annual increases between June 2002 and July 2008

Darwin 13.35% from $188,300 to $422,300
<snip>
Sydney 4.57% from $394,000 to $515,000

Note that these are average annual % increases over a 6 year period, based on the Median Price of Established House Transfers.

People will see that Sydney used to be double the price of Darwin, but now they are very close to the same value.

paulry

That's not your average kind of ostrich

paulry

I reckon that ostrich deserves a bite in the bum!

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I was walking round the back streets of Berry last weekend after a trip to the market and it was really noticeable just how many properties had SOLD splashed across the realtor boards... I know Berry is hardly typical of the Illawarra property market, but even houses in Berry were not moving only a few weeks back... some definite bargain hunting going on.

ABCDiamond

First home buyers have been out in force.

The mortgage companies have confirmed that the average first home mortgage recently has been $280,600 and most commonly at about 90-95%.

This shows that the average price paid for first homes would be around $295,000 - $310,000

iamthecreaturefromuranus

The properties I was seeing in Berry are not first homes... not unless there are some seriously minted first time buyers about. Lots of houses in the seven figures price bracket in Berry district. The town is a favourite place for people moving out o Sydney. I would guess its one of the most expensive places in Oz outside of the major cities.

benlast

I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to lull yourself into a false sense of security. However, neither does it make sense to base your life choices on the opinions of random people from the Internet. If you ask about a job on this forum, many of the replies will be from those who are feeling frustrated about jobhunting, and they'll take the chance to rant because (a) it relieves their feelings and (b) it might put off new immigrants who could reduce their chances of finding a job. Not surprising that you'll see them state firmly that there are no jobs.

Thus you get posts saying "I keep reading about the lack of jobs" - of course; people keep posting about it, but that doesn't mean that they're accurately reporting the situation. If things really were as dire in the job market as the worst posts say, then I'd be travelling to work in empty train carriages next to a traffic-free freeway on my way to the deserted centre of Perth.

b

Deutschmaster

Friend of mine back in the UK broke his hand. He's a railway technician who fell out of a train (luckily stationary) and cracked his hand on a rail on the way down. He went to A & E. Also that night there had been a big fight with the cops bringing in all the injured. The A & E staff saw his broken fist and naturally assumed that he had been in the fight. They made him wait for hours until they realised he wasn't part of the brawl

Devlin

No chance! Australia still has the highest house prices relative to income in the developed world. The only way is down....and a long way too.

IndieG

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-25658,00.html

Hutch

You don't live here, I do, I'm watching first-hand the movements of the property market here and I'm telling you that (in this area) property has reached the bottom and is on the way back up. I honestly couldn't give a shit if it's over-priced - as far as I'm concerned it's *all* overpriced, but you can either piss and whine about the cost of it all - or get in the game.

I mean seriously, I sold a poxy little two bedroom bungalow (built in 1980) in the UK on 400m2 for a quarter of a million quid a couple of years ago - are you suggesting that's somehow preferable to the $400k I paid for a four bedroom two storey home with pool on an 800m2 block, five minutes walk from a stunning beach lapped by the Pacific Ocean?

Hutch

Yea ... and in the same paper - one day later.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...001942,00.html

Deutschmaster

So who's the Aussie that has moved to Swindon?