The Great Social Divide

[Waverlybay]

From: Waverly Bay


An interesting article on the impact of spiraling property prices in the UK on social trends. Is OZ in danger of following similiar trends?

http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,680123,00.html

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

Reply: 1
From: PT Bear


I noticed a similar phemonomen when I was working in Silicon Valley near San Fransico last year. Due to the tech boom, people working there had more money, so property prices skyrocketted. Those who didn't have high paying jobs found they couldn't afford to live in the area and faced a commute of 2-3 hours each way.

Mountain View (the heart of Silicon Valley) was facing a teacher shortage amongst other things.

I believe that this is happening in Australia, but its not as severe - we don't have the population density. In addition to this, we have negative gearing which tends to keep rents lower than the US (I can't comment about UK).

We are seeing longer commute times into the city from the 'new' suburbs being created over the last ten years. The commute times are not as obvious, but they do seem to be on the increase.

PT_Bear