Generation Rent - Another sob story

How can someone on $60K buy a house?

Hmmmm, while I appreciate the work he does, I do not feel sympathy towards his situation.

Saving of $6,000 over 6 years equates to an average of $1,000 per year.

After Tax Income - $60,000
Less Rent - $11,000
Less Savings - $1,000

Theoretical spending = $48,000.
That's $4,000 per month in expenses.

I have no idea how a single person can spend that much.
My day to day expenses are a little more than that, and thats with a two adults and two kids (includes paying car rego / health, home, car insurance / etc).

I'm guessing he's probably paying his loans that were used to purchase cars / go holidays. But don't talk about Sydney being unaffordable if you aren't willing to make sacrifices.

Even if you wound back Sydney prices to 2008, this article would still say the same thing!

 

There is a thread on this article in the living room forum

 

Plenty of demand for nurses etc in great regional areas eg Albury. Nice lifestyle, less stress. Primo area = primo prices reflecting income levels of those who want to live there.

I am sure that if he had spend the past 5 years investing rather than holidays, be would have had a nice deposit to use by now... but not as good a news story

 

I earn roughly $60k with three part time jobs and live in Norlane, and for a nurse Geelong has plenty of employment options......the new Epworth hospital 15 minutes up the ring road, Barwon Health, St. John of God, Geelong Private, Grace McKellar centre....heaps of employment opportunities. Mortgage is $280 a week.

People need to think, first home is not 'the ultimate' home. A stepping stone surely.

 

More like primo prices reflecting the fact that those who live there purchased a house at the right time, which went up in value and allowed them to buy in said primo area.

The stats on income by area do not support your claim.

 

Yeah. Boo hoo. He has many options. One is to get another job. Another is to negotiate a higher salary. Another is to move to Brisbane or Gold Coast.

 

The most obvious one is to actually spend less than a THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK after rent and tax has been paid. What a huge douche bag.

Actually this article does a pretty big disservice to those who are actually doing it tough (eg those who have kids or had a poor education, etc) because it makes people assume that everyone who is not improving their wealth are all like this schmuck.

The entitled mentality of many Australians really irritates me. I wish they could be put in a developing country where no matter how hard they try, they would not even have an opportunity to earn anything over an amount to pay for rice and rent and nothing else. After 5-10 years of that they would start to appreciate the incredible situation they were born into in Australia.

 

Really nothing more than a bait topic by news.com

 

Plenty of people in Sydney who can't afford to live in the Eastern suburbs nor do the VIP type social night life many like, well not if you want to get your own place

Plenty of evidence on this forum of people on similar or less incomes who do own in Sydney or who are renting here and buying elsewhere.

I agree, just the media stiring up *****, I think it is all a setup and done on purpose, cheap rubbish filler, but does hurt people as some will buy into it instead of looking at other options.

There is an old saying, and it has always applied..... "life was not meant to be easy"

 

I feel sorry for this guy.

What's the going rate for a nursing degree? I might but his off him and put it to good use

 

@Dave3214 - that's just too radical. As a single person on the average wage why can't I get a near new 5/3/3 McMansion within 5km of the cbd?

Buy one, get one free.

 

This bloke's a nurse. He has a vocational degree - something not many others have, so he's ahead of the curve in that respect. There's plenty of demand for nurses in regional areas so it's not like he's tied to near the CBD.

He can move to somewhere like Toowoomba. Plenty of hospital jobs there, both public and private. It's not exactly woop woop, it's Australia's second largest inland city. Nightlife is pretty great there, I would know, I used to live there. For four to five times his yearly wage he can buy a hundred year old inner city dream home, and under QLD law FHB stamp duty is negligible.

He can easily do the VIP inner city nightlife thing. Only difference is he does in in sunny Queensland instead of congested Sydney. He could even afford a nice car to go with his $300k heritage home - seems like everybody in Toowoomba drives Beemers these days!

He's not dumb, if he was then he wouldn't have a nursing degree. He has shown he is willing to work harder, so why not work a little smarter

 

Alot of assumptions in this thread, granted spending 48K/yr is quite excessive. Nursing, and healthcare workers in general, have education expenses and course fees that other professions simply do not have - and they charge like a wounded bull too!

Further, it's not as simple to get a job elsewhere. You can't just roll into Toowoomba or Tamworth base hospital and demand a job. It doesn't work like that for any profession regardless of what you hear in the media. Secondly, there would be many nurses at those regional centers who would probably be starting off as part-time; simply because hospital funding is so poor or because budget allocations are so tight. There is no guarantee that he would be able to earn anywhere near his current income at a regional hospital.

Interestingly, it is people like him that the wealthy developed-city-dwellers rely on. Those on low incomes who perform "menial" jobs are surprisingly critical to a city's functionality. Expecting all of these people to simply uproot and move to green pastures is silly and just not feasible.

 

Sorry, but $60 k net isn't a low income. Try $60 k gross, or what Disability Carers get, closer to $35K because there are no full time jobs.

 

Obviously you get the job before you uproot. If you don't get the job in your preferred regional, don't give up. There are scores of regionals crying out for professionals/health workers. Nursing is not a 'menial job'. A menial job doesn't require qualifications like nursing does.

 

Left wing emotive "Aussie battler can't get ahead" rubbish journalism.

Bloke is not serious about a deposit, just like I'm not serious about an 85 foot yacht..

 

This is why i come to propertychat

 

As a healthcare worker myself, I couldn't agree more. I've experienced this myself first hand, I'm lucky to still be young and sometimes get continuing education discounts!

Fair enough, but you can't just stroll into whatever Sydney's main hospital is and demand a job either. There would be an application process, and you would have to submit a resume/cover letter, just as you would at the Base. However, you would potentially have less practitioners competing for these positions, perhaps increasing the likelihood of a full time position?

As for incomes, I don't know about nursing specifically, not sure how city vs regional income differs. One thing that's a certain fact is that regional homes may be one sixth of the price of a Sydney home, if not even less.

No arguments here, nurses perform one of the most important jobs around. But on the other hand, those of us who live regionally also require these services, and healthcare outcomes are often poorer in regional areas than metro Sydney/Melbourne. Our man would know this through the public health courses he studied as part of his degree.

For those that aren't looking to buy, sure, stay in Sydney. But if you're finding it tough to save, Australia's bigger than just Sydney and Melbourne.

 

Well said @G TOWN

 

@G TOWN , all well said. I don't disagree with any of it. Except to say that one of the advantages of living in a city is the improved access to services e.g. healthcare, that would not be available in regional centers. Pricing out people who provide these services would only serve to either increase the cost of service delivery or reduce access.

In some ways that might be more beneficial - at least those who provide critical services would be forced to move across Australia, as you say, thereby equalising access to services between cities and regional centers