Lets talk about housing and homelessness.

[lind9650]

There were 105,237 homeless in 2011 in Australia.

I believe the number has risen enormously since then. This is a disgrace to our country, and the politicians don't want to know about it.

With house sales and rentals at staggering unafordable prices the problem of homeless people will continue to grow..

Something will have to be done to change this. Federal and State Governments give permits for billionaire investments, but don't care that the average working person will never be able to own their own home. Low rental housing for low income families are being pulled down to make room for high rise, multymillion apartmrnts to be built.

I fear and feel for the younger generation, for the future of our grandchildren and their children. How can a young couple on average wages save AU$200,000.- for a deposit towards a housing loan when their rent is AU$450.- per week or more? Not everyone has well off parents to help or parents with whom they can live while saving.

What is the answer?

Erica

[lurker172602]

The others are fine, and I'm 110% sure there would be no risk with this couple.  It's all good 

[lurker172602]

---

@lurker172602 wrote:

The others are fine, and I'm 110% sure there would be no risk with this couple.  It's all good 

---

and really, can I sit here in my very comfortable life and not help them?

[imastawka]

---

@lurker172602 wrote:

---

@lurker172602 wrote:

The others are fine, and I'm 110% sure there would be no risk with this couple.  It's all good 

---

and really, can I sit here in my very comfortable life and not help them?

---

Probably not.   But 'stuff happens'  y'know

Outside of anyone's control.  I'm very wary of losing my comfortable life.

Kids have to make their own destiny AFAIK.    We had to make ours

Bet the young 'uns have never even heard of Income Insurance (not yours in particular)

[lurker172602]

You're right, they do have to make their own way.   But how many grandparents these days "help out" through childcare?  We aren't in a position to be able to do that, but that is a significant lifestyle (and financial) load that some readily take on.

We haven't seen the full details yet, and obviously won't do anything without speaking to our financial advisor guy, but we will, as always, do what we can to help out our family.

[bushies.girl]

If you do your maths Stawka   ......  given the house prices today, kids of today end up paying far more interest than we ever did, nothing "wussie" about it  I bought a house in Melb in 1980, it cost $90k, the same house is now worth over $800k

[lyndal1838]

House prices have certainly skyrocketted since I bought this place.

It is within sight of Sydney airport and cost $25,000 in 1970.

The house up the street (a knockdown and rebuild) sold for over $2 million late last year.  The average 55+ year old house in the area is going for +/- $1.5million.

[bushies.girl]

Know what you are saying Lyndal, house prices in Melb n Sydney are now out of control    ......

[chameleon54]

---

@lurker172602 wrote:

Sorry chameleon, but I'm having trouble with your figures.  I also live in a small coastal town (much fewer people than what you quoted). We are 5 hours drive from the state capital and 3 hours from the national capital.  It's not particularly on the "tourist trail" either.  

I just checked domain and there is one house in my town for sale under 200K and that is $199,000.

The unemployment rate in our shire, according to the ABS, is 6.91% and appears to be rising. Not such an attractive option for young families looking for a start.

(We love it here though )

---

I just spent 3 minutes on realestate.com. I checked three large regional centres / cities. All 3 have very attractive landscape or coastline, all services you could need, major shopping precincts, hospitals and schools and in the case of one, even a university.  I put in a maximum figure of $300,000 and in each case got dozens of results, many of which where quite nice houses that I would have no problems living in. Some of the houses where priced under $200,000. The centres I checked where Portland Victoria, Mount Gambier South Australia and Bendigo Victoria.

I,m sure you could repeat the excercise for a huge number of other large centres and get similar results. What would be wrong with living in Bendigo ??? Its an absolutely beautiful regional city.

On Supernovas point that people would find it difficult to leave family and social networks. OK I get this, but what often happens is that once a family member moves, other family and friends also move to the same location, so it is possible to take some of your network with you.

In our families case, one aunty moved 250 km. 15 years ago. Another of her sisters ( my aunty ) moved to the same location a couple of years later. She was soon joined by my grandmother. My mum and one of my sisters now own houses in the new location and we moved here 7 years ago. There is now more family members in this new location than are left in the area we originally came from.

By coincidence there are also several of my old school class mates including a neighbour that was my best mate at school. ALL of his extended family have moved to the same regional city. 

Relocation can be challenging, but once you summon the courage to take the step, life can be much better and you soon make new friends.

[bushies.girl]

Portland's house prices are going backwards, I know because I used to live there, if Alcoa were to close, Portland would becomes a ghost town.      

[chameleon54]

You could be right bushy. I just picked larger centres at random that I new had attractive surroundings. I dont know much about Portland except that I have a cousin who moved there a number of years ago and loves it. I have holidayed in Bendigo a number of times and love the place.This was one regional city we considered when deciding where to move to.

The centre we ended up choosing to move to is expanding quite quickly and we do get a few people moving here from Melbourne and Sydney. Like Lyndal they can sell their average house for 1.5 - 2.0 mil and buy a new house on the seafront here for 1 -1.2 mil and have a bit of change to spare.