Fewer than half of Australian adults to own a home

[Redneck]

This is testament to the failure of all our governments in recent years to provide jobs for our children and allowing the Negative Gearing Scam in investment properties to price them out of the market!

A pox on all their houses


Fewer than half of Australian adults to own a home: study

The great Australian dream of owning a home is slipping out of reach, with fewer than half of adults expected to own a home in the next few years, according to the nation's largest and most comprehensive household survey.

The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Report, surveying 17,000 Australians, authored by the Melbourne Institute's Professor Roger Wilkins from the University of Melbourne, found that between 2001 and 2014 owner-occupied houses have declined by 3.5 percentage points.

Between 2002 and 2014 the proportion of households owning investment properties increased from 17 per cent to 21 per cent.

"That translates to 700,000 Australian homes. It is likely that in the next few years fewer than half of adults will be home-owners," Mr Wilkins said.

"This is likely to have adverse social consequences apart from economic. Home ownership can mean people are more invested in their local communities with a sense of belonging.
Biggest decline

"I don't think there's a societal decline in interest to own a home, rather this trend is driven by price."

Victoria has had the biggest decline in home ownership.

That is becoming a stark reality for Melbourne's Tom Alomes, who has been looking to buy a house or an apartment for the past few years but is being priced out of the market.

The 26-year-old, who is sharing a rental house with two friends, said out of his close friends only one has cracked the property market, and those who own homes in his wider network have had help from parents.

"I've looked at areas beyond where I would really like to live and even considered an investment property but even then I will basically be mortgaged to the hilt," Mr Alomes said.
Net wealth

"I've reached the point where I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be renting for a lot longer and even might have to wait until I meet the girl of my dreams. Combining our incomes might be the only tenable way to do it. I know overseas in places like New York they rent until they die, but it's a mental shift I am slowly coming around to."

The report found the wealthiest households in Australia are couples over 65, who have seen a real increase in median net wealth of almost 70 per cent since 2002, helped by the surge in property prices.

However, nearly 70 per cent of all Australian households have received some form of welfare benefits between 2001 and 2014 and parents are paying more than double the fees for childcare they were paying in 2002.

Despite a rise of almost 6 per cent in the number of households with private health insurance between 2005 and 2014, premium increases above inflation have led to people opting for basic policies with lower benefits.

Mr Wilkins said it could be assumed more people were taking up health insurance, be it at basic levels, not for the fact of having protection, rather being primarily motivated by reducing their tax liability with the Medicare levy surcharge.

http://www.afr.com/real-estate/fewer-th ... 719-gq8mzz

[Neferti]

ALL Australians can own their own home .... or get a Mortgage ... which is NOT exactly owning your home until you get the Title Deeds. It means "going without stuff" to save up a DEPOSIT. IF you really want to.

I had to save up a deposit to get my house. I refused any monetary gain from my former spouse. I walked with some clothes, a car, and my daughter who was just 5 at the time. I came to Canberra from Sydney ... because he was becoming very violent.

Don't talk to me about "it" Not Being Fair.

My daughter went without to save up a deposit too .... NOTHING is easy. She and her husband and kids have been in that house for 4 years now .... it isn't exactly "posh" but it is theirs ... it is what they could afford ... not what they'd like. I have a very sensible and smart daughter ...

[Black Orchid]

It's NOT fair. The very base price of a house or unit near me is $1.7 million. That's pretty base. Most are double and triple that. Many lenders now require a 20% deposit so that's $340,000 just for a deposit. A few short years ago that would have bought the whole house. The only people who can afford the prices are the Chinese and they are en masse at every auction.

If they go way out into the west they could even be looking at $800,000 in an area where many would not want to even raise their kids and still they would need $160,000 for the deposit. Rents are higher than they have ever been which make it impossible for the young to save. They DO make sacrifices or they wouldn't even eat.

Most people want to work so the thought of moving to regional areas is not on the cards.

Things have changed. Houses cost a lot more in comparison to wages than they ever have. You cannot compare today's market to that of yore. Of course, no matter what they pay or where they buy, they will have to make sacrifices. That's a given. But young people wanting to buy a starter property in either Sydney or Melbourne have little hope.

Not everyone wants to live in Canberra

[Neferti]

Nobody wants to live in Canberra ... I definitely did NOT when I arrived here ....

Parents in Sydney might have to sell up and downsize and give their children their "inheritance" before they die, so that the children can get into the housing market.

What is it about us Aussies who judge people because they do or do not OWN a home (or have a massive Mortgage?)

Many Europeans never own their own home ...

[Black Orchid]

This is a typical Sydney auction but double or triple the people.

[AiA in Atlanta]

some years back some research was released that showed Germany had the lowest rate of home ownership in Western Europe ... yet the economy was rock-solid compared to their neighbours who had much higher rates. does home ownership really matter to an economy?

[AiA in Atlanta]

This is a typical Sydney auction but double or triple the people.

i lived on Pitt St for a few months in the mid-90's in a luxury high-rise (renting) and the building was thick with Chinese/Taiwanese and some Koreans. Walking from the elevator to my unit smelled like a funky Chinese restaurant, the kind you wouldn't want to eat in ... seriously.

[lisa jones]

Nobody wants to live in Canberra ... I definitely did NOT when I arrived here ....

Parents in Sydney might have to sell up and downsize and give their children their "inheritance" before they die, so that the children can get into the housing market.

What is it about us Aussies who judge people because they do or do not OWN a home (or have a massive Mortgage?)

Many Europeans never own their own home ...

RUBBISH!

[lisa jones]

ALL Australians can own their own home .... or get a Mortgage ... which is NOT exactly owning your home until you get the Title Deeds. It means "going without stuff" to save up a DEPOSIT. IF you really want to.

I had to save up a deposit to get my house. I refused any monetary gain from my former spouse. I walked with some clothes, a car, and my daughter who was just 5 at the time. I came to Canberra from Sydney ... because he was becoming very violent.

Don't talk to me about "it" Not Being Fair.

My daughter went without to save up a deposit too .... NOTHING is easy. She and her husband and kids have been in that house for 4 years now .... it isn't exactly "posh" but it is theirs ... it is what they could afford ... not what they'd like. I have a very sensible and smart daughter ...

[Outlaw Yogi]

I saw it coming in my 20s, now I'm 50.

Back then houses where I grew up were pushing $250K, now the median price in Sydney is $920k, and well over $1m where I came from.
My father recently paid $900k for a duplex. That's the best part of $1m for half a house.

I saw people (couples) older than me mortgaging their lives away for a 1/4 acre of mundane suburbia with ever increasing regulations and charges and within 10 years didn't like each other any more.
So when I read than most family break ups were due to financial stress,
I realised the '7 year itch' was some what true.

I'd wanted my own farm since a child (inspired by grandparents farm) so when I was 26 I went to a bank, said "I've got 6 motor bikes including 2 registered Harleys, 3 cars including 2 registered Falcons, a big Mona Fab V bed turning lathe worth $6k, a 400 amp Esab welder worth $4k, an Eagle SMF tyre fitting machine worth $4k, and $55k in you bank. And I want to know if you will lend me $20-30k to buy a rural property".

The manager said "Yeah, no problem. Actually I've just had my arse kicked for not making any loans this month, so I'm going to make sure this one happens".

They only lent me the money because I didn't need it.
The plan was to pay it off in 5 to 5&1/2 years, and if things went bad could still pay it off in 7 years. As it turned out I payed it off 1 month under 3 years and cheated the bank out of all that lovely interest.

If you really want something you have to have a plan, and it has to be workable/feasible. Too many people want to live the high life and get someone else to pay for it, then cry foul when they fail.

As far as reading party politics into the scenario, I'm of the mind that the Libs like high inflation to keep property speculators happy, which drive prices up. Thus homes becoming unaffordable for the masses.
I posit America's GFC housing price bubble as proof of that.
But even worse is that Labor regulate everything out of reach of Joe and Mary Blo, so many people take the cynical view that it's not worth owning anything. And would be better off doing nothing and let the govt provide it for them.
I'm led to believe the Fabian Society, who own the Labor party (unions just direct it, not own it) has an ultimate goal of abolishing personal private ownership so that eventually corporations own everything and governments make the rules. Sort of corporate communism for lack of a better definition.