@springyzone wrote:
On the whole, I agree with what you have said and I don't have sympathy with people who cry poor because they have been cut off from some grant or other & now they have to struggle to afford the investment property & the McMansion.
Or they have had big bucks coming in, squandered it, then cry 'poor me' when it runs out.
But.. I am not sure where you live Tippy. I am in an outer suburb of Melbourne. One of my married kids has just been looking for a home. Now, they were in a tiny place, a house but unit size. Sold in 48 hours with 2 offers. The market is very hot at the moment.
Bought a slightly bigger house (not a McMansion but one with a lounge area which the other really didn't have) as they are expecting a second child. Over 40km out of town, very ordinary suburb, certainly not a dear area.
Even so, there is not a lot on the market much under half a million & every place in the lower to average price range is selling fast.
I worry as obviously interest rates will rise eventually & not everyone is on big wages, my daughter & her husband certainly aren't.
But the reality is young people are facing steep house prices, there would be practically nothing of any kind under 400k and even that is a lot of money.
This is precisely what I was alluding to in my previous post:
Wages have simply not kept pace with prices (and not just housing prices either).
These kids are battlers in the traditional sense and are trying their best.
They are certainly not into McMansions or overspending but their economic situation is precarious.
If the husband should be retrenched there would be a battle to find full time employment.
On the latest data the next job would be at reduced rates and probably part time.
The household budget would take a very heavy hit.
Discretionary spending would be immediately and indefinitely curtailed.
This scenario is being mirrored across all states to a lesser or greater degree.
In Vic with the collapse of the auto industry (including its supply chain) there will be a large loss of disposable income.
Mining slowdowns in Qld and WA don't just affect the miners; there are huge support industries that back up the works operations.
I travel past a few companies in Bris that made large fabricated mining plant.
They've gone from yards full of gear to vacant lots in the last year or so.
The workers who made these aren't any more; hopefully they've retrained as baristas.
The chap next door to me is a sparks who installs solar panels for industrial use.
He's still going along ok but is well down on last years volume.
It's right across the board I'm afraid.
I think we could all come up with examples from our own experience of a general slowdown in the wider economy.
Economically we're in a bit of a mess and govt is just ignoring the issue.
Downsizing via automation, offshoring, corporate tax avoidance thru profit shifting are just the tip of the iceberg.
Don't forget that all our fees are paid to an entity in Geneva and finish up somewhere in the Bahamas.
If the global economy were to be likened to a ship it would probably be the Titanic and (I suspect) only first class will be welcome in the lifeboats.
Globally, a more egalitarian approach to economic matters is badly needed.
Without spenders you simply don't have markets.
Sorry to sound so depressing but I don't see anything improving in the short to medium term.
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