Tolling of Bells for Affordability in Sydney and Melboune

"According to a report released by Westpac last year, more than a quarter (27 per cent) of current homeowners said they were unprepared for general home owning costs in the first two years.

And that figure ballooned to almost half (40 per cent) when it came to current first home buyers, indicating that the focus is so intensely on breaking into the property market that homeowners are ill-equipped for what comes after".

I think that's just natural especially if you are purchasing a PPOR first. Job security is a thing of the past and when you first purchase a house 70% of the repayments are just interest so it can be daunting. My first purchase was a positively geared IP so I didn't really worry much about it because I knew that the tenants would be covering the loan. However, when I purchased my first PPOR <1 year ago I know I can handle the repayments, but if something unexpected was to happen e.g. unemployment I would be screwed. I knew owning wasn't going to be cheap though and expected all the utility fees and council rates etc.

 

Agree. I sourced a lot of my best household furniture years ago from trading post. Fitted my entire house out buying from a lady with extremely upmarket taste selling all her gear for that trip around Australia. About 1/3 the cost of what she paid for Italian and American Imports.

Re the milk crates - my bank manager took me to lunch at Christmas and we both compared our frugal ways to that of our kids. Said when he started out getting transferred from town to town he was continually packing / unpacking his gear into tea chests and the furniture was pretty basic. That’s exactly what I remember too was I was a kid. It was a different era I guess.

 

For once the general public aren't agreeing... She's getting slaughtered in the News FB comments!

news.com.au - First homebuyer Diana Sayed managed to buy... | Facebook

 

Given i didn't buy my first place until i was 42....something i will regret forever in a way, but what caused that is now in the past, i was uber-frugal with any furnishings. Bed from my parents, old late 90's style big screen TV with the tube off my brother, second hand couch, got given a kitchen setting from my boss (and neighbor), fridge for under $100 second hand off Geelong online sales, and the washing machine was my tenants actually as he moved in ironically before i did into this new place in 2010. Indeed the last time i bought a new appliance was a microwave marked down from $439 to $99 at Harvey Norman.

My mindless gambling addiction i had for many years (now several years in abstinence) has turned me into the scummiest consumer of all. I begrudgingly buy clothes, and like i said have not bought any new standard whitegood at all in my life, always been second (or third) hand. It's funny in a way, the debts i have left myself with and the realisation of all the money i lost (and opportunities forgone in the 90's when housing was much more affordable) i can live on chump change easily. Food would be by far my most significant expense.....but i like eating! And even then going out is merely the Hungry Jacks vouchers, or the 40-50% Dominoes offers i get occasionally. Or i might extend to the cheapo lunchtime $10 La Porchetta deals, or the $11-$12 Sphinx on weekday evenings once in a while. But over 20 years of gambling needs to be made up by at least that much time living frugally, so it's just the reality of what it is.

Can never make up for the lost time, but certainly some people have much different and more expensive tastes and options when wanting a first home. Mine was $260K for a 3-1-1 on a smart block in Norlane, obviously an apartment in a capital city is much dearer, but one needs to be conscious of the costs of choosing to live in a capital city.

 

Would it be reasonable to assume that after Ms Sayed said "Something needs to be done" in relation to property prices in Brunswick, and someone actually does something, resulting in Brunswick prices halving overnight, making the suburb much more affordable, that she will then be blowing up about the capital loss she has suffered, and who will be providing some compensation?

$5k for a fridge, washer and a dryer? looks like Mum doesn't need to buy any Christmas or birthday presents for another 10 years...

 

Why on earth does she have to live in Brunswick? Plenty of other options out there.

 

Because they are too busy keeping up appearances. A PYT like her would never consider living in places like Mickleham....sure her parents would have probably in the less trendy suburbs. If everyone made prudent financial decisions there would be less wealth to go around.

 

She could have still found an apartment in trendy Footscray for considerably less

 

yeah but that there wouldn't be many kebab choices as oppose to pho choices.

 

Yeah...I guess she did not want to crawl through some of of the druggos....

 

Skinned alive.

 

She lives in Brunswick not Balwyn, still plenty of druggos around for her