Thread: Economist's views on Australia

My heart bleeds for the current crop of youngsters, facing an impossible battle to save up and buy with less than TWO percent interest rates...
Me and the Missus lashed out some 40 years ago, with a $32k 3x1 house of barely 11 squares. Being a scrooge, I paid out extra to lock our variable rate to a ceiling of .....
- 11%.

Very glad we did, for when the rates topped out at 17 %, we were nearly paid off. About 12 years ago (after they dropped down to sanity.) we extended / doubled the area. Cost us another $30K to do it. Few more years of paying extra...and its ours, lock, stock and barrel.
My first and last new car was.... the HX runout.

What! You mean it is possible to not live in Melbourne and Sydney and constantly bemoan the property prices? You wouldnt know that from media coverage. It is a very limiting discourse for anyone “trapped” in the cities. A bit of meaningful regional development incentive would be useful. And from a vic perspective that should not be limited to Ballarat, Bendigo and places within cooee of Melbourne.

Originally Posted by donh54

Simple solution - don't live in Sydney!
If people stopped paying ridiculous prices for housing that they can't afford, the market will come down.
Having 1.2 kids? Why need a 4 brm house. We had 7 kids in a 3 brm house - Mum and Dad (and baby, for a while) in one room, boys in one, and girls in the other.
How many bathrooms do you need? Given that each one has a similar maintence and water cost as a medium sized swimming pool, you can save lots, apart from the initial price of the house.
The house we're looking at selling is over a hundred years old, four bedrooms, one bathroom, sundeck, various sheds, on a full 1/4 acre, two blocks from a medical centre, three blocks from primary school, five blocks from high school. 10 minutes walk to town centre.
After we've finished tarting it up a bit, it'll be on the market for a bit under $250k
Plenty of work available, freshwater fishing and bush walking, 4wd parks etc.
Who needs a big city?

Lotta Sydney people have given up on Sydney and are buying in the regions, particularly SE Qld.

yes, they seem to love the 3-400sqm blocks with 25sq homes stacked on them.....

They're affordable. What's not to like about a $200,000 four bed, two bath, two garage plus land cost? Land is more expensive than the house itself.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

yes, they seem to love the 3-400sqm blocks with 25sq homes stacked on them.....

Correct, and there's places in Victoria with the same recipe,....and I would definitely not want to live there.
Pickles.

At risk of repeating myself, we need to develop an economy that is not based on selling houses to each other. An economy based on value adding to our natural resources and primary produce then exporting the products. There needs to be much more manufacturing in Australia. Only manufacturing can provide the large numbers of low skill jobs to employ the 800,000 or more unemployed and disability pensioners with a capacity to work.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

At risk of repeating myself, we need to develop an economy that is not based on selling houses to each other. An economy based on value adding to our natural resources and primary produce then exporting the products. There needs to be much more manufacturing in Australia. Only manufacturing can provide the large numbers of low skill jobs to employ the 800,000 or more unemployed and disability pensioners with a capacity to work.

It's called the "Resource Curse" and basically it says that a country blessed (cursed) with natural resources does not invest in education and training for it's people, nor in manufacturing as it is just too easy to dig stuff up and export it. Also the best and brightest are attracted away from government and politics, which ends up in a dearth of good policy. Resource curse - Wikipedia