Hi Homegirl
No, it's not you '"cheap renovators dreams' do not really exist in the Canberra market".
At least, not at the price you are talking about. An article in the Canberra Times last week noted that the cheapest stand alone house available on the allhomes website was $317,000 in Ngunnawal, Gungahlin. For $250,00 you would more likely be looking at a fairly basic 2 bedroom unit in the outer Canberra suburbs.
However, there are reasonable buys available but they take some searching. It's all relative to the market you are looking in. Some of the suburbs are being rejuvenated as people gradually start to renovate homes (ie Ainslie, Macquarie, Page, Dickson, O'connor) but even so you would be hard pressed to find a home for under $350,000. Even at $350,000 you would only get an original older home which needs work.
A recent article from the the Canberra Times, stated, in part:
Sunday, 11 February 2007
Robust property market can be destructive and unequal
CANBERRA has become a place where the property market defies gravity. The house prices in some suburbs are now what people might expect to pay in Sydney.
Late last year a property on Mugga Way, Red Hill, sold for over $3 million making it the most expensive house sold to date in the ACT.
Yet Canberra exists in a hinterland. Unlike a coastal Sydney suburb, there are endless tracts of land available for growth.
The question is whether enough of that land is being made available quickly enough to meet the demand. At the same time, Canberra's office market in January posted its lowest vacancy rate in 16years 1.8 per cent driven largely by a surge in demand by the Commonwealth Government for new office space.
There is no sign of the heated Canberra property market suddenly cooling on any level.
People both professionals and tradespeople are attracted to Canberra from all over Australia by its checklist of assets including career advancement, lifestyle, modern infrastructure and comparative safety. They all need somewhere to live and work.
It is hard to argue against a rising property market. It is an indicator of a robust economy, and people who own their own homes generally could not be happier even though interest rates remain high.
However, rising prices and rents also increase inequality and can be socially destructive.
Canberra's vacancy rate for rental properties is about 1per cent, with some real estate managers having no properties on their books available for rent. Renters have also been hit by sharp rental increases of up to 30 per cent in a year. Not many people have received weekly pay rises of the same order.
In a city of the wealthy, where price is a consequence of demand, the property boom is bringing financial and social disadvantage to the average person.
Any how, welcome to Canberra and good luck with the House hunting.
eek: I know!!).....but after searching on allhomes and realestate.com, I am getting a bit disillusioned! 
