Havent bought a house yet? has the boat sailed away?

[HULK_I6T]

Ive been monitoring price of houses in the past 18 months and it appears the property market has really exploded off. Prices are ridiculously high at the moment and houses are selling like hot cakes which can only push the prices further up

I just shake my head when i think of the affordabity.. how can people afford to buy? Unless they are already home owners from many years ago selling and buying in the same relative market or using their existing home equity to buy into another..

But for the new entrant to the market, it looks bleak. i just dont see it as anywhere near affordable. To enter the market at current prices is so tough. By the time they save a 10-20% deposit the price will shift from them another $100-200k+. The kids of next generation wont stand a chance.

I think its even tougher for renters. As property prices shift up so will rents.. as prices go up, less people can afford an investment property (lucky if they can buy one to live) so rental properties will become scarce relative to those looking to rent a place. demand for scarce rental properties will increase (as people cant afford to enter the market). Renters will be trapped forever at the mercy of landlords charging whatever they please.

Has the current state of the property prices officially seen the boat sail away from first time market entrants and renters?

[Franco Cozzo]

If you move out more regional you can have a bit nicer house with a bit more land, I live about an hour out of Melbourne and $400K lands you a new 3 bedroom house and 1500m2 of land. Plus you get $100 rego discount in Vic.

We commute to Melbourne for work, only takes about an hour as mostly you're just chillin in 6th at 100km/h.

Though even out here, what cost my parents $25,000 (1500m2 property in new estate) in 1994, costs you $220,000+ now.

If you work in CBD takes about an hour to get right into CBD on VLine trains from out here, they go faster, they're more comfortable and they still have ticket inspectors, the only thing is our trains are only once every hour in peak or every 2 on weekends unfortunately.

For Melbourne, unless you want to live in Melton or the dodgy side of Sunbury you don't get much bang for your buck, have a look at Brunswick, its population (its like fancy hipster Gen Y area of Melbourne), and none of them can afford to own a house there, they all rent because its simply too expensive.

Are these prices sustainable? I don't know but I know I'll never be able to afford a house in Melbourne suburbs other than Melton or the dodgy side of Sunbury

[Big_Daz]

I am actually in the process of building a house here in Brisbane (well contracts are signed, with land being developed as we speak).

How did we do it? My wife and I both earn great money and my parents are going Limited Guarantor for us to save the LMI. They have owned their house for 20 years so they have a tonne of equity and are happy to help us get into the market.

[HULK_I6T]

There are probably some areas outside of capital cities that are affordable but then you have to drive an hour or more to do anything. Is your time worth nothing day in day out travelling long and far to do anything?

Thinking ahead you also want your kids one day to go to a proper school, develop the right networks to be successful in life, usually property prices near good schools with switched on kids are expensive. Living in a regional area, kids wont develop many networks there

[Giant Cranium]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

If you move out more regional you can have a bit nicer house with a bit more land, I live about an hour out of Melbourne and $400K lands you a new 3 bedroom house and 1500m2 of land. Plus you get $100 rego discount in Vic.



We commute to Melbourne for work, only takes about an hour as mostly you're just chillin in 6th at 100km/h.



Though even out here, what cost my parents $25,000 (1500m2 property in new estate) in 1994, costs you $220,000+ now.



If you work in CBD takes about an hour to get right into CBD on VLine trains from out here, they go faster, they're more comfortable and they still have ticket inspectors, the only thing is our trains are only once every hour in peak or every 2 on weekends unfortunately.



For Melbourne, unless you want to live in Melton or the dodgy side of Sunbury you don't get much bang for your buck, have a look at Brunswick, its population (its like fancy hipster Gen Y area of Melbourne), and none of them can afford to own a house there, they all rent because its simply too expensive.



Are these prices sustainable? I don't know but I know I'll never be able to afford a house in Melbourne suburbs other than Melton or the dodgy side of Sunbury

An hour from the city yesterday was five dock. On a normal day that is Penrith and even that is getting expensive.

[buggerlugs]

Who in this day and age has job security ? More and more jobs are going from full time to casual.........

[Mont5.0]

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

An hour from the city yesterday was five dock. On a normal day that is Penrith and even that is getting expensive.

Near me (Penrith area) 420sqm Block $400,000. Then add a house.

[T3ts50]

It depends on where you want to live. There are plenty of houses available for under the $400k in Melbourne. The houses might be a little older, a little further, and the postcodes might not be fashionable, but it is an entry point into the market.

I'm sick of hearing people saying you can't buy anything decent for under the $500-$600k mark, just because they are not willing to buy something they can't afford.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by T3ts50

It depends on where you want to live. There are plenty of houses available for under the $400k in Melbourne. The houses might be a little older, a little further, and the postcodes might not be fashionable, but it is an entry point into the market.

I'm sick of hearing people saying you can't buy anything decent for under the $500-$600k mark, just because they are not willing to buy something they can't afford.

If you are hell bent on buying your 'dream home' in your 'dream area' as your first purchase it will never happen unless you and your other half make a load of money.

Ask most people with a decent home now how they started and they will say the small 1/2br unit out west somewhere that was cheap and within their scope of fixing up and repaying.

Was the same 30 years ago when houses were dirt cheap, is the same now. If you want your nice place but can't afford it, and the deposit keeps falling short as prices keep rising lower your expectations and buy something you can afford right now.

This will serve a few purposes:

1) Foot in the market
2) An asset that should grow over time
3) A loan to park your money to slowly ship away at the mortgage
4) A sense of being pro-active and doing something rather than winging on how tough and unfair life is.

And why do you HAVE to buy a house? Buy a unit somewhere instead. I had a friend who was hell bent of starting off by trying to be a property developer.. wanting a block that had size to do a duplex or small villa development.

Problem is, you will go to auction against cashed up, seasoned builders who are on to their 10th or 20th development - you just won't win...

I'm 35, currently building my dream home in my dream location and that only happened after 15 years of buying / holding and fixing up then selling about 8 other places that were cheap, perhaps in undesirable places (to some) but easy to rent out and easy to repay.

If I had some spare cash there are some nice places in Katoomba I would like to get my hands on!

Funny how people always have money for new phones, smokes, coffees, cars, booze, etc etc etc...

Is it hard for whipper snappers starting out now? You bet. But certainly not impossible!

[Mont5.0]

With some banks etc offering 100% loans, its really up to the individual, if you want it.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Mont5.0

With some banks etc offering 100% loans, its really up to the individual, if you want it.

Is that starting to happen again!

[Uncle Niceguy]

the only thing wrong at the moment is kids who want to buy a house on par with mum and dads house need to lower expectations go a bit further out and get something that they can afford to pay off on a single income.

[zilo]

You can buy a decent house for 250k within half an hour of Hobart CBD.
You can still buy reasonably priced houses in parts of Geelong....

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Is that starting to happen again!

Quite the contrary.

[DBourne]

My girlfriend and I are saving for a deposit, and both want to buy, rather than rent.

Reasons being that we both live at home, and have no rush to get out, but also both understand that rent is almost the same as a mortgage payment, and I am honest enough to know that if I was renting, I wouldn't have the discipline to also save again for a deposit.

Now, I would personally be happy with a unit, and if it was just me, would probably be out getting a place now. However, as my girlfriend has a dog (who I also love, so it's not an issue) a unit is out.

But I don't want a full blown house either, so we are basically looking for a townhouse, which aren't in massive supply, but are in massive demand.

It's really depressing to me, feeling like I've been trying to save forever and a day, and yet each time I look at property prices, my face just drops and I think, I'll never get there!

[Dash_XR]

Plenty of 3 bed houses in Melbourne under 30 mins from CBD for 300k, I don't see how that is unaffordable. People that can't live 5 mins from CBD in a two story 5 bedda with triple garage throw their hands up in the air and say everything unaffordable.

I think Sydney's a bit harder though?

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by HULK_I6T

There are probably some areas outside of capital cities that are affordable but then you have to drive an hour or more to do anything. Is your time worth nothing day in day out travelling long and far to do anything?

Thinking ahead you also want your kids one day to go to a proper school, develop the right networks to be successful in life, usually property prices near good schools with switched on kids are expensive. Living in a regional area, kids wont develop many networks there

You really don't have a clue about real life do you??

Most regional schools are better funded, have better services, better class sizes than schools in capital cities.

My kids go to a regional 'small' school, there is one teacher per 10 kids, some classes have one teacher per three kids, the school rates in the top 5% academically, and my son who is in year 5 is currently reading at year seven level and doing year 6 maths, better than most year 6's in the city. The school has ipads, computers, video conferencing, etc etc

Houses are cheap and plentiful, three bedroom house on a ¼ acre block, walk to school, walk to shops recently sold for 15K, needed some work but nothing that can't be done.

We live in a small town, on about 3 acres, living the dream, no need to drive into the city, if you work in the country, no problems taking a pay cut as housing costs a fraction even in nice areas.

Just bought a 2.5 acre block 20 minutes from Port Macquarie, 15 minutes from the beach, walking distance to school and shops for just over 150K, build a huge 8 car shed with mezzanine floor for storage of car parts and about to put a house on it, who wants to live in the city

There is more to life than the city, and believe it or not most people do not want to live in the city given the choice.

Next problem is peopel want a 6 bedroom house with theatre room, 3 car garage, ducted air con, etc etc, when I grew up my parents, myself and my brother lived in a small 3 bedroom house without air con, and no garage. The want it all and want it now generation want everything then complain about the cost, my first car cost me $600, and I was stoked to have it, my daughter wants a new Jeep as her first car

Our shed getting build on our 'little' block recently:




Dogs playing 15 minutes from our block, who wants to live in the city lol:

[Polyal]

There are a couple of things wrong here...number one you started speculating while admitting you haven looked at the market in the past 18 months?..hmm

People need to deal with not being able to live in the city. Most people I know have parents who bought in outer suburbs and then moved in or stayed out, not the other way around.

GovCo REALLY need to invest infrastructure away from the capitals. We are too reliant on one city in each state. You then create more "affordable" housing in those areas, roads and services would be upgraded, less congestion in major cities with less traffic etc...

[Franco Cozzo]

Its not just that we want everything now, land prices have gone through the roof compared to wages, the example in our case from 1994 vs 2015, 25,000 vs 220,000+ our wages haven't increased by that many times since 1994, yes the towns population has nearly doubled (2500 to nearly 5000) but there is no shortage of land.

There is a 600 acre property for sale around the corner from me, and there is about 25km of paddocks sparsely populated with people here and there until the next major town if you head south, if you head north all the properties are 70-100+ acres until the next town.

Up until recently the shire was stopping all developments and back then land was much cheaper, now we've got tons of developments on so much more land availability and now its more expensive?

I guess that's up to the developer, if people are willing to pay $200,000+ why sell for less.

Something I thought was interesting was around 2007 there was the last vacant property in the estate, its on a massive down slope backing onto the local creek, was $75000 back then, its still vacant now but it just keeps changing hands and now its around the $200,000 mark again.

With me I'm keen on the idea of a more regional property to use as a base, chuck a pimped out shed on it, then spend a few hundred thousand on an F250 and a 5th wheeler.

If it turns to crap just pack your crap up and chase work interstate etc.

[Grippy]

I'm a real estate agent in SE Victoria about a 45 minute drive from the city, there are plenty of houses still selling between $320,000 - $350,000. The problem I see with first home buyers is they expect the world for their first place, I was just happy to have a roof over my head when I bought my house. The best thing home owners can do is pump as much money as they can into their mortgage to reduce interest.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Grippy

I'm a real estate agent in SE Victoria about a 45 minute drive from the city, there are plenty of houses still selling between $320,000 - $350,000. The problem I see with first home buyers is they expect the world for their first place, I was just happy to have a roof over my head when I bought my house. The best thing home owners can do is pump as much money as they can into their mortgage to reduce interest.

I've got relatives in SE Melbourne (assuming by SE Victoria you mean SE Melbourne), the problem with that area is 45 minutes from the city becomes 2 hours once you get stuck on the Monash and then Bolte Bridge in peak hour.

Traffic in Melbourne's East is insane but it has everything, its rather well looked after in that regard theres everything you could possibly want and most of the work seems to be out that way too.

In our 2014 election campaign here in Vic one of the common complaints for our region from people in Gisborne was developments occuring which have tiny 400m2 properties being squeezed in everywhere.

[Polyal]

Yeap the east is insane for traffic, still cant believe they didnt go ahead with that tunnel.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Polyal

Yeap the east is insane for traffic, still cant believe they didnt go ahead with that tunnel.

Thats a pretty hot topic at the moment and depends on who you ask, business case return on investment was around 45 cents in the dollar and they were going to toll existing freeways to help pay for it such as the Eastern and first part of the Tullamarine Freeway.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Thats a pretty hot topic at the moment and depends on who you ask, business case return on investment was around 45 cents in the dollar and they were going to toll existing freeways to help pay for it such as the Eastern and first part of the Tullamarine Freeway.

Who would have thought a major freeway entering a major city with no way to distribute the traffic or cross the city other than going straight through would be a bad idea...LOL

[XW-BAXR6T]

Frankston in Victoria and surrounds is still cheap, you can buy a decent 3 bedroom house for approx 350k with decent sized block of land, much cheaper in frankston north but there is a reason for why it's cheaper. Im predicting Frankston will sky rocket in near future as the place is changing. Frankston reminds me of St Kilda back in the old days with prostitutes & drugs, look at St Kilda now.

I do think Karingal is the nicest area of Frankston that's still affordable.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XW-BAXR6T

Frankston in Victoria and surrounds is still cheap, you can buy a decent 3 bedroom house for approx 350k with decent sized block of land, much cheaper in frankston north but there is a reason for why it's cheaper. Im predicting Frankston will sky rocket in near future as the place is changing. Frankston reminds me of St Kilda back in the old days with prostitutes & drugs, look at St Kilda now.

I do think Karingal is the nicest area of Frankston that's still affordable.

Something that makes me laugh is the gentrification of Sunshine thats occuring, thats a freakin' rough suburb and now house prices are rising and you're seeing a different kind of person starting to live there

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by zilo

Quite the contrary.

Was thinking the same thing....

[DBourne]

Same thing happening here in Sydney.

Places that you wouldn't bloody go without a gun are raking in 600, 700K+.

Just amazing.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Land will always go up, I remember blocks selling for 75K that are now worth half a million, but back then 75K was a lot of money.

My parents bought a house and land package for 65K back in '82, and they only just managed to raise the deposit and were struggling to buy the house, they really wanted the house up the road for 70K but the bank wouldn't give them the money, both parents worked and had a good jobs.

Was not easy, was the same when I bought my first small three bedder, was 170K back then and me and missus were struggling, working overtime and and not going on holidays for years on end, it was hard.

No different now for new home buyers, it has always been hard, but today people expect too much and want to buy the best in the best location, and if it's not handed over on a silver platter with minimal effort it's all not fair.

May be buy a more modest house for your first house in a more modest location, rather than the McMansion near the city, and you will be able to afford it.

[Franco Cozzo]

A bit of stats (lol) compiled about Melbourne:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ousing2013.JPG

Check out 1995 to 2013, thats a big increase.

Is it we want too much or has house prices genuinely increased vs our wages?

I'm putting money on the latter, but I'm not interested in buying around Melbourne so it doesn't really effect me so much but its still risen within a 100km circle of Melbourne really.