You feeble minded imbecile. I shall zap you with my Gen Y powers. Bazahhhhhh!
Housing Affordability for GEN Y
- Thread starter Nixba
- Start date
You feeble minded imbecile. I shall zap you with my Gen Y powers. Bazahhhhhh!
I started out in a one bedroom flat.
At the time I used to dream of being married and having a big family home filled with children.
Thats now my reality and now I dream of the solace of a one bedroom flat again
Nah just kidding, I love my life just as it is.
At the time I used to dream of being married and having a big family home filled with children.
Thats now my reality and now I dream of the solace of a one bedroom flat again
Nah just kidding, I love my life just as it is.
Yes, true G....many before Gen Y did that...me too.
But; were you complaining of lack of affordability when you started?
I know I didn't - I just went looking at houses after the Bank told me my affordability level.
There was no "It's not fair" about it - it was what it was.
It took no time to find where I couldn't afford, and where I could, and then tried to buy something I could live in, in that suburb.
I looked at 5 houses on the first day, and bought one of them; two days later.
Was it near work?
Not really; 30 mins drive away from the city for me, about 40 mins by train into the CBD for my girlfriend (we bought together).
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Here we go with the generation bashing again.
Like those who came before, wages will rise while the loan stays standing. The cost of the loan will diminish in real terms. They will be no more a salve to the banks than many generations before them.
Come on! You mean you didn't whinge for the next (insert weeks/months/years here) that housing was too expensive. That you couldn't live in the trendy suburbs or buy the large, well appointed homes? I mean, housing was cheap back then. It was easy back then. All the BB bought their houses & land for next to nothing.
No. I just knew that there was no way that I could ever afford a house o save up a deposit so I never did it. It was only getting married that even put it on the radar.
We bought a house in England very soon after we were married as you could do it on a much smaller deposit than was available in Australia at the time. When we came back here we bought a block of land and sat on it until we could afford to build. Even then when I went to ask about the loan the loan officer (a friend of a friend) had a really hard time to stop bursting out laughing.
Yep.
Say a 350k mortgage now might well be seen as tiny in 25 years time, when average salaries are sitting at 300k. Or maybe not.
50k now is a whole lot less money now in terms of wages than 50k 20 years ago.
Look at the average multiple of income for an average mortgage for a better idea. But when you do that, you also need to look at the increasing prevalence of 2 income households.
When I had my first Proshop in the mid-80's, I was pulling out about a grand per week from it. $50k odd (but working 70+ hours per week to get that
), so the hourly rate wasn't enormous. That was considered an above average earn, then of course.
I don't have a prob with working lots of hours - as long as the remuneration is reflected admirably for the sacrifice.
I'm just very glad that I took the plunge and applied for jobs in Canberra after I graduated. I now have a 3 bedroom house less than 10 minutes away from my work and get paid more as well. If I was still in Melbourne, we'd be lucky to get an overpriced apartment within a reasonable commute to work. There is no way I'd move back to Melbourne or to Sydney the way property prices are in these cities. Just not worth it at all. The difference between them and any other major city in Australia is minimal.
When I had my first Proshop in the mid-80's, I was pulling out about a grand per week from it. $50k odd (but working 70+ hours per week to get that
Haha - yes - I remember my first job out of school, working in a bank in the mid 80's. My weekly net income was the grand total of - wait for it - $100/wk.
What's that? Around $5,200/yr net ... out of which I paid my mum board (well most of the time and sometimes under duress) of $20/wk.
Two different jobs and two years later in the late 80's I was thrilled to be on $1,000/mth net and could actually start saving. Yep - $12,000/yr.
While at school I worked part time picking strawberries by hand (that's harder than you think) and in the local corner store.
How times have changed
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Its a lot colder than Sydney that's for sure!
Canberra is certainly colder than the other capitals- but the summer is more pleasant than in Sydney.
I measure a climate by an index I call the MWWI. The "Mrs W's Whinge Index". Every day where it's so hot and humid that it becomes "I can't stand it. It's so hot" is added to the index. So Canberra is about 6 on the index (six unbearably hot and humid days in a year). Sydney might be 30-50 (it's been a while since I lived there), Brisbane a whole lot more than that.
Melbourne might have to be changed to a Wet Index. There's less rainfall than Sydney- especially Sydney in the last week- but there's more rainy days.
Well we're considering moving up to Queensland once my husband is finished with his studies and training for that reason The property prices there are largely pretty reasonable as well. It's just a thought at this stage though. We'll see what happens. Might move overseas for a bit as well.
The property prices there are largely pretty reasonable as well. It's just a thought at this stage though. We'll see what happens. Might move overseas for a bit as well.I started work in November 1976, aged 16 in a bank on a salary of around $3.5K per annum. My brother recalls we paid $50 per week board, but that has to be wrong. I think we started off paying $20 and possibly were paying $50 once our salaries increased. I bought a house with my dad, brother and ex-boyfriend and we rented it out. Brother wanted his money out so we sold it without really making a profit, but it meant I didn't spend money on partying or new cars like some of my friends did.
Then I bought half share in a unit with my dad. As soon as I could, I bought my first crappy little house for $42K. I had earlier (couple of years earlier) missed out on a $29K Balmoral house (in pretty poor condition, tiny, but still worth probably $600K now) that was offered to me for $25K because I couldn't stretch to that expense. I kick myself now, but have to remember that it was a big stretch at the time.
I do recall when I left to have our second child (worked for two years after the first one) I was on $31K which was a good salary for a steno, and more than many of the "male" jobs. I'd been fortunate to be promoted quickly due to my steno skills and also recall that my first promotion put some of my male co-workers' noses out of joint. I was 19 and one man I recall was 28, two kids and I was earning a fair bit more than he was at that stage. He was not happy and let me know it.
I also recall that in 1976 my brother and I both started work the same month. After six months' probation, he was able to get a (staff discount) housing loan whilst I had to wait eight years. The only way I could get a "males only" housing loan was if I had a child to support, but I wasn't going to have a baby just to get a housing loan.
I also remember how you had to almost crawl on hand and knee to get a housing loan. I was working in the loans department head office in 1978. You needed 20% deposit (from memory) and it had to be proven to be genuine savings. No cash deposit from the parents would be accepted.
Getting a loan as a single woman was almost impossible. Those were rare.
So for those who say getting a loan is hard now, I say pfffft!!!
Strawberry picking
Used to get 25c a box.
Not sure what they get now, but some of our growers in our town, bring pickers from Dominican Republic to pick. Kids now don't want to.Parents give them all the money they need.
My first job at age 17. I made $3.68 an hr working in a factory (1977). That was pretty good money back then. Worked there a total of 20 years. When I quit in 2010 I was making $14.50...still good money (minimum wage was approx $9)
Every generation will have people complaining.
Look at the seniors now. Some have savings and own their home, and others struggle everyday (usually because of their earlier life choices).
Used to get 25c a box.
Not sure what they get now, but some of our growers in our town, bring pickers from Dominican Republic to pick. Kids now don't want to.Parents give them all the money they need.
My first job at age 17. I made $3.68 an hr working in a factory (1977). That was pretty good money back then. Worked there a total of 20 years. When I quit in 2010 I was making $14.50...still good money (minimum wage was approx $9)
Every generation will have people complaining.
Look at the seniors now. Some have savings and own their home, and others struggle everyday (usually because of their earlier life choices).
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I also recall that in 1976 my brother and I both started work the same month. After six months' probation, he was able to get a (staff discount) housing loan whilst I had to wait eight years. The only way I could get a "males only" housing loan was if I had a child to support, but I wasn't going to have a baby just to get a housing loan.
I also remember how you had to almost crawl on hand and knee to get a housing loan. I was working in the loans department head office in 1978. You needed 20% deposit (from memory) and it had to be proven to be genuine savings. No cash deposit from the parents would be accepted.
Getting a loan as a single woman was almost impossible. Those were rare.
So for those who say getting a loan is hard now, I say pfffft!!!
Commonwealth Bank, I presume?
I also worked for the same bank, but not so young. I did a year at TAFE to learn shorthand typing, then worked at a Solicitor's for a year. Wage was $96 per week. Then the Bank as a stenographer, but I never once used that skill there. Again, the wait for 8 years for a staff loan. Like you, I got a loan as a single woman, but it wasn't easy. And I had to pay full rates, no staff loan for me.
Commonwealth Bank, I presume?
I also worked for the same bank, but not so young. I did a year at TAFE to learn shorthand typing, then worked at a Solicitor's for a year. Wage was $96 per week. Then the Bank as a stenographer, but I never once used that skill there. Again, the wait for 8 years for a staff loan. Like you, I got a loan as a single woman, but it wasn't easy. And I had to pay full rates, no staff loan for me.
I got knocked back the first time on a home loan.
Clearly remember the strange look he gave me and the way he laughed at my request - I already owned a cheap rural block of land on a personal loan and had equity in that which was about 10% the value of the house {sold 6 months later and got that} + a 10% deposit but still no luck.
Parents going guarantor eventually secured me the loan.
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