$170K family priced out of Perth

CJay said:
Still stirring nonetheless. You have someone with a fairly average household income looking to purchase in a top 10% suburb and wonders why he can't find something in his pre-defined acceptable price range. That's not an indepth look at housing affordability, that's pure absurdity. Simple supply and demand dictates that to afford to enter a premium market you must face premium pricing.

I'd have a lot more sympathy for his arguments if he was complaining that in comparison to other markets, an outer suburb property in Perth is unaffordable.

And once again, with such a transient occupation and nature as seen by his history, where is the benefit of home ownership in comparison to renting? Lots of rentals which are more than affordable for him in his desired areas - funny that.
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can you provide any links that show it is fairly average household income?

surely the point hes making (or at least what i take from this) is that someone who earns more than half the average wage in WA (and about 2.5 times the median wage) cannot afford to buy blue chip and still raise a family comfortably and that we need more variety of housing stock?


in term of rentinv vs owning i agree with you re him but that doeasnt make the rest of the point any less valid. we live in an increasingly global world, there are many people out there just like him who have the option to live here or not and as australia gets more expensive and other places get cheaper it will be harder for them to choose here.
 
Retired people are still a household. If you're talking about a general average then everyone should be included. Even excluding people on benefits, the average is not going to be even half of 170k.
 
cimbom said:
According to the last Census, the average household income in Australia is 65k
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sanj said:
yeah but that included the retired etc imo
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Household income is obviously different from average wage. I think I recently read somewhere that the average wage is roughly $80k.

I know a few people whose household income would approach $500k. Not that they see that kind of money, a lot of it goes towards servicing large investment portfolios. :D
 
If proximity to transport is an issue, there's plenty on offer in the cbd.

You're not going to find acreage within spitting distance of public transport, there simply isn't the population base.

Living in a country town is one thing and there are sacrifices to be made. If he doesn't like it, take a gig in a city like Sydney or Melbourne.
 
Wouldn't being close to his work place be more sustainable, near Bentley and not NOR suburbs which would make travelling to work a pain. Should be able to get something close to Bentley that he could afford.
 
VaSSagO said:
Wouldn't being close to his work place be more sustainable, near Bentley and not NOR suburbs which would make travelling to work a pain. Should be able to get something close to Bentley that he could afford.
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youre missing the point. perth doesnt have a lot of options when it comes to "inner" suburbs with local amenities etc and often within those suburbs there isnt a huge amount of housing options although clearly it is getting better than it used to be. certainly vic park should have been considered by him though

it goes back to the numbers boeman put up, for this guy i guess the figures just didnt stack up and it made more sense elsewhere. cant blame him for that.
 
cimbom said:
In most cities in the world, even quite expensive ones
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I think this is an important part. If you look at the situation as Perth (or even Australian) centric - then yes, I agree with D.T - Cry me a ****ing River.

On $170k you should be fairly comfortable in Perth. However, if you want to live in the most expensive 'burbs you either need to come in with something to start with, or lower your expectations.

However, if you look at it on an international scale - there is a point. Perth, as a place to move to, is unaffordable - regardless of a high salary. Our taxes, add our housing costs, eat up a massive % of salary.

Presumably this individual could earn similar salary in other parts of the world, and live a much higher standard than what he can in Perth. However, with that comes other sacrifices.

As an Australian overseas, we are often overlooked for roles, as we are too expensive. Our rates range between 20-50% more than those of Americans and Brits, for the same role.

I know a number of people who took roles in Australia for a few years, and were attracted by the high $$ salary, however, only lasted a few years there because it wasn't worth their time - they just couldn't get ahead as fast as in other parts of the world.

Lets also not forget the agenda which he and Curtin are trying to push. An "urbanist" leaves because a city isn't urban enough? I thought his role should include advising the city on how to help "urbanise". :(
(Im not even sure half of those words are even words :D)

Blacky
 
CJay said:
You have someone with a fairly average household income
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CJay - I used to have a similar opinion about what was the average until BayView challenged my assumptions in another thread.
I discovered this link which put me back on the straight and narrow.

A disposable household income of $2200/wk puts these guys somewhere around the top 5% of households. Quite exceptional - and not close to average in the slightest.

Blacky
 
Is it disposable though?

For a family of 4 with lifestyle wishes (say inner suburbs and a modern family car) it really does get chewed up quick.
 
Peter Newman must be retiring and Curtin would be looking for a replacement. It was never going to be easy to replace someone like Peter in terms of talent and profile.

And I definitely wouldn't put it past him to milk this story for all it's worth...
 
There are some bargains to be had around Dalkeith - it will only take 1 1/2 hours to get to Curtin Uni by bus or about 50 min by bike on a mostly flat road.

Pinkboy would take the long way around via Freo and still beat this guy.
 
How is the guy in this article crying poor? He simply states that he didn't see value for money in the city and so didn't move there. Is everyone required to share your lifestyle preferences?
 
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