Anyone remember the days before the property boom?

Could be back to the future if there is a bust - i.e. before the boom....anyway, here is my re-collection (I'm in my mid 30s)

Circa 1989 - remember the folks visiting a private for sale sign to buy their first home. Auctions was a foreign concept hah. Rang the private number and arranged for a first inspection at 8pm at night. Called and asked for a second and third inspection the daylight. Made an offer on the third visit and even bargained prev. owner to throw in a washing machine and two sets of draws. Done deal, off to solicitors.

My aunty also living in the same suburb (St. Albans) sold off her property to buy a bigger house in the same suburb. They received 0 (yes zero) enquiries within 2-3 months. Agent had no option but to start "aggressive" marketing by sending out flyers and even holding a bbq to attract potential buyers back then. Couldn't sell it 6 months after so they shelved the idea and waited till 12 months later. Finally sold the property but had to heavily discount it by $15K (quite a bit of $ back then).

The general patter seemed to be like this:

Interest was so high on home loans and they were difficult to get in the first place people simply didn't really hoard property. If people sold property, it was usually to upgrade to a more desirable suburb or simply bigger house.

Rent was also very low but so were properties, having said that many moved out before 20, got settled by 25-27 or so and purchased a place not long after.

Even say as late as 2006, prices weren't that ridiculous in most suburbs.
 
Ha, just go back 3 years when you could pick up a house in the Druitt for around 230K. Never to be repeated prices.
 
When I was a teenager a house nearby sold for 86K, expensive but achievable even for younger people, I planned way back then to one day get that house or one nearby. Now that house is worth 4 Million, by the time I was earning money its value had accelerated beyond reach and I could never catch up to it.
 
Should the interest rate direction reverse because of inflation, we will all get to see what it was like in 1990.

We were paying 17.5% interest on our housing loan.

It is the people that came along after that time, those that have only ever seen interest rates fall that have really embraced borrowing lots of money and buying multiple properties.

Those of us who witnessed their friends evicted from their home of 10 years because they were unable to pay the ever increasing repayments were very reluctant to over commit in case rates went back up.

In general, those who started investing in real estate from the 1990s onwards have been the beneficiaries of a dream run that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

Simply a case of starting your investment journey at the perfect time, missed the horror of massive interest rates and the social disruption caused by them but there in time to benefit as they fell.

Obviously, anyone who does not invest will never accumulate, but it You can be lucky sometimes :)
 
My hands on memory only goes back to 1997. In that time I think I've seen about 4 market cycles in Melbourne. This isn't the first time houses have been moving faster than you can blink, it won't be the last.

Had you been looking in 2011, you might have been the only one going through the house. It might be the same situation 12 months from now.

The market will slow down, there will be a period where there's no movement in the market, there will be another boom. I know all this for certain, I just don't know when or for how long.
 
When I was a teenager a house nearby sold for 86K, expensive but achievable even for younger people, I planned way back then to one day get that house or one nearby. Now that house is worth 4 Million, by the time I was earning money its value had accelerated beyond reach and I could never catch up to it.

86 to 4m?? That's astounding growth. What/where was this? Over how long?
 
I remember way back in early-mid 2013, someone in our apartment block couldn't sell their unit for $380k. By the end of the year one had sold for nearly $500k.
 
My hands on memory only goes back to 1997. In that time I think I've seen about 4 market cycles in Melbourne. This isn't the first time houses have been moving faster than you can blink, it won't be the last.

Had you been looking in 2011, you might have been the only one going through the house. It might be the same situation 12 months from now.

The market will slow down, there will be a period where there's no movement in the market, there will be another boom. I know all this for certain, I just don't know when or for how long.

For some odd reason 2011 dip in property prices, well at least around my area (Glen Waverley). Had a friend buy close to GW CBD for $870K (2009) - tried to offload it and got offers of $750K Max in 2011. Hung onto it, sold property in 2013 for a massive $1.3mil.
 
For some odd reason 2011 dip in property prices, well at least around my area (Glen Waverley). Had a friend buy close to GW CBD for $870K (2009) - tried to offload it and got offers of $750K Max in 2011. Hung onto it, sold property in 2013 for a massive $1.3mil.

A friend of mine tried to sell his Ringwood house in mid 2008. You could hear the chirping crickets at the auction, comments on the vendors bids were along the lines of, "They're dreamn'".

The general Melbourne market got overheated and peaked in 2010, they would have gotten 40% more had they waited 2 years. Across 2011 the market dropped roughly 10%. In 2013 it started to recover and has been increasing since.

It's now getting overheated again. This is all just another market cycle. In my memory this tends to run on a 4-6 year period in Melbourne.
 
Really.....have a look at Druie in 2002 and then again in 2006....you will note that there were some real bargains......what happened back then?


Ha, just go back 3 years when you could pick up a house in the Druitt for around 230K. Never to be repeated prices.
 
Back in the late 80's was clearing out old storage space for my employer. Came across the Real Estate guide from the Sydney Morning Herald dated circa 1972. There were many properties in there that looked ridiculously cheap by 1988 standards, but this one remains vivid in my memory for some reason.

4 Br house in Northbridge (In the Sydney lower north shore) with views over Middle Harbour for $68k.
 
My parents divorced in 1991 and the house had been on the market for months and months. A beautiful Wahroonga house situated in the bush sold for $189K - now worth about 10 times that.
The worst time to have a house on the market in Sydney that I've ever seen.
 
Should the interest rate direction reverse because of inflation, we will all get to see what it was like in 1990.

We were paying 17.5% interest on our housing loan.

...
In general, those who started investing in real estate from the 1990s onwards have been the beneficiaries of a dream run that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.
The hangover lasted a long time though.
At that time it was considered sensible to say, "I'm not ready to get weighed down by a mortgage. I don't need the mortgage stress."
 
You could find a property you fancied on the web, train, fly and bus 3000km and it would still be available to make an offer on when you got there.

And there'd be none of this 'I've received another offer' from the agent.

If an auction you might be the only bidder.
 
Really.....have a look at Druie in 2002 and then again in 2006....you will note that there were some real bargains......what happened back then?

2002 was nearing thhe peak of a boom. By 2006 prices had crashed. Things picked a little by 2009 but not much. New boom started again in mid 2013.
 
In 2011/12 some houses in Rouse Hill within spitting distance of the town centre were on the market for 6 months. Unthinkable now.
 
Yes I remember. Back when the doomsayers were still at it. And will forever be.

Reminds me of that Keen fella...... eat your heart out!! lol

And that other grumpy old SS poster who we haven't for a while..we're supposed to be all broke by now lol.
 
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