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Harry Dent has written some interesting stuff about this. His argument, which makes sense to me, is that we will see a period of low growth between the peak spend of the Baby Boomers (about 2006) and the peak spend of Gen X (about 2025-2030 allowing for generational changes). Check out...

http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3201.0 Scroll down about 40% of the page, to the diagram "Population Structure". There are actually more Gen Xers than Baby Boomers! The Baby Boomers reached their peak spend about 5 years ago.

At peak spending age, people are more prone to purchase larger homes. Upgrading and renovating means more money chasing a finite number of desirable properties and tradies to build more. Demand increases. It's also that when people feel wealthier, they spend more, even if they don't get more...

Easy credit is definitely an enabler. As to longer term prices, I think we need to consider a few other factors, including demographics (in 15 years Gen X will be on average at peak spending age), money flowing into Australia is still being shared amongst a smallish population, and that there...

I think you'll find that higher housing prices are actually a symptom of cheaper production of goods. Fundamentally, most people will spend as much as they can - if living their lifestyle is cheaper, they have more to spend in getting into the best propeerty they can.

I'll admit I was being a bit silly here. Sometimes I do that.:) It's my standard answer when someone blames investors for high prices. FWIW, I actually agree with your response, and would add several other factors as well (which have been discussed elsewhere).

Property investors pay less for property than owner occupiers, because most investors don't buy a property unless it is well priced. This being the case, why don't FHBers simply outbid the investors? I've walked away from far more deals than I've gone through with, and have only bought where I...

Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that housing is as affordable as at other points in history. I am saying that: a) although many people assert that housing is unaffordable, we still have people buying property, and still have about the same proportion of people living in owned versus rented...

I'd be looking to social change as one of the indicators, specifically that 30 years ago most homes were bought with one income, now they're bought with two. Of course housing is expensive right now, we all know that. What I find interesting is that people seem to be operating under the...

Why? Because the world has to fit into the small and crappy package that Mr Median defines? There's more to the story. Far more.

Given that outer areas seem to have risen a lot, do you think that would be a good place to go bargain hunting as the market subsides? Australia is different to overseas for lots of reasons. I suspect you don't want to discuss them here, though.

Things get pretty difficult when you're on the wrong end of someone's economic equation. Ultimately, though, the money chases the desirable property, and the highest numbers win. Loooong commute times are a nasty side effect.

There are several factors at play with property increasing in real terms - it's not simply expectation. These include things like: * property in a specific area becoming comparatively rarer as population grows * gentrification improving a neighbourhood * income increasing in real terms...

Makes sense. The biggest gripe I have with tradies generally is not their work, but that they often don't show up and don't call. I'm the customer, and should not have to chase them up.

Not everything costs more in real terms. Many things cost a lot less. Cars, furniture, durable goods, travel, electronics, the list goes on. As for food, consider what people actually ate 20 years ago. In my house it was meat (usually sausages) and three veg boiled on the stove. Stuff is...

I remember working at Woolies as a 16 year old and being amazed at how much I thought I was getting paid!

Surely a ****-take. Go and find out how boomers lived during the 1960 and 70s when they were younger. Lots of things are cheaper now, and by a significant amount. Their standard of living was also far below what it was now. And no I'm not a boomer, I'm a young Gen X.

Having renovated the Queanbeyan units, it's actually surprising how much can be achieved with a few bucks and some effort. It's also surprising how doing this can increase the rent potential, and even capital value of the property.

The indexing thing is fine, until inflation gets started. In 2000 (when GST was introduced) we had a higher than average CPI for that year, and I paid HECS repayments all year and yet only reeled the debt in by a couple of hundred dollars. Ouch. I guess all I'm saying is that if there's an...

Given that you have decided you don't want to buy yet, I would have thought that now is an ideal time to get rid of that pesky HECS debt. Why not take a second job and use ALL of the non tax/super components to get rid of it. Do you still get a discount for paying it out early?