Housing Affordability Survey - Aust, UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, NZ

[AussieSim]

Veerrry interesting ...

www.demographia.com/ Follow this link and then check out the 4th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. I am in Sydney which is bad enough, but it could be worse - I could be paying off a house in LA

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

not sure about that. it says that belfast is more unaffordable than london?

[MrsJC]

this has been on the news here as NZ comes out as pretty unaffordable along with Oz

[AussieSim]

pmd - I think you will find that what makes the difference between the Belfast and London number is the income. The affordability is a factor of income relative to housing cost.

[Starmummy]

I know it doesnt include Dubai but I sure wouldnt like to be paying off a house here. Small very average 2 bed semis start at nearly £300k. A house like my 300k house back in the Uk costs about £720k!!!!! And renting how would you fancy paying £35k pa for a 3 bed house??? It is just so expensive here, sigh....... and the sun isnt even shining at the moment! No perks at all.

[Sibble]

as MrsJC says it's been hot news here. Dh and I were talking about it last night. Our current market value (Auckland)is 1.5 million. It has at least doubled since we bought it and there is no way we could have afforded what it costs now when we came over from UK and wouldn't have a hope in hell if we had only ever lived and worked here. It's not just the house prices as it says it's the mortgage rate (and general cost of living) my sister in London is paying 3-4%, one of ours is over 10%. Fortunately it is small but that's a heck of a lot each month. It has to plateau here soon or we are in big trouble.

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

had to LOL at the 'affordable' table. all the crap Canadian cities are on it. (including my home town!!)

[MrsJohnCusack]

the mortgage rate here is UNBELIEVABLE as sibble says

we only have a tiny mortgage luckily, we just took it out to do some home improvements as we decided to stay put rather than move and take on a big expensive mortgage

we were lucky to come here with some UK house profits. we could have bought NOTHING borrowing on DH's salary here

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

could you imagine if the UK interest rate went up to NZ rates??
we'd all be homeless.

[twentypence]

We were in the same position as MrsJC - timing was everything. Our house that we moved into 4 years ago would be completely beyond us (and it was almost beyond us when we bought it and I was a SAHM) even though I now work.

I do remember my parents (and dh's for that) talking about 17 or 18% mortgages when we were little though, and they were managed on just the man's wage.

[Shells]

Timing has been everything for us in the worst possible way. couldn't afford to buy in London when we lived there. then came to NZ this time last year and absolutely can't buy anything here either! We try not to get consumed with depression about it all, but what are we going to do? Will we ever own?

[twentypence]

I think that's the reason that every other person I hear talking on the street is a Pom. Only those with a house sale overseas could even think of paying half a million bucks for a house when they earn $45K (and pay 33% tax on $6K of that). Didn't mortgages use to be 2.5% of combined income? You couldn't get anything for that.

[phdlifeneedsanewlife]

this is so much what I don't want to hear

no way we can afford to buy here in the UK, just desperately hoping we can get something in Oz. We have a good nest egg but our problem has always been the monthly outgoings...

[twentypence]

Petrol is cheaper and people drive older, cheaper cars. Food is cheaper (if you eat like an antipodean and don't expect everything to be like Tesco) so I guess those two would cut down your monthly outgoings - but then it could just be proportional to the salary reduction.

[Shells]

phd - thats our issue too. have a nice deposit, but monthly payments would be prohibitive. twentypence is right though - some living costs are cheaper. And for us, the better schooling and health care options (DS2 has special needs) have made it worthwhile in the short term anyway.

[phdlifeneedsanewlife]

twentypence, I have to ask - "eat like an antipodean and don't expect everything to be like tesco?"

please explain?

[expatinscotland]

the low interest rate + slow market in the US makes it a very good deal just now in many areas.

my dad and mum's sister got together and just snapped up three properties last week as investments.

[discoverlife]

My DS1 now 22 years old, has no hope of buying for about another 5 years, longer if he tries to rent. Now if he could just find a girlfriend and share a mortgage they could probably swing it. But we live so far out in the sticks he would find it hard to meet someone.

[twentypence]

Hardly any ready meals. No tins of beans for 3p. No reducing things for quick sale. No nice hummous, pasta, ham, teeny, tiny veggies, no 15 choices of pork pies or sausage rolls. No imported fruit unless it's something pretty bog standard but off season for NZ. No kenyan fine beans flown in from Kenya...

I was shocked when I went in Sainsburys in July and it was about half fridges/freezers. here you get a fridge for the meat, one for the dairy and one for a small selection of other deli items. A freezer with frozen veggies, chickens and icecream. It's certainly not a third of the shop. All the meat in the UK was prepacked by price - so a joint was five pounds and tough if you only wanted a small amount.

[phdlifeneedsanewlife]

ah yes, see what you mean now.

[Cremolafoam]

god belfast is so expensive now.house prices have increased by so much in the last 5 years.our house is now worth 6 times waht we bought it for in 2001.thats great but it makes it nearly impossible to move as
the downside is salaries are still pitiful and nothing like what you might earn in the south of england.therfore you can't increase your mortgage.

its all relative i think

[Sibble]

cremolaforam - exactly what I was going to write yesterday when I got disctarcted. You only benefit from the price rises when you downscale, move to a cheaper area (if you can find one or die!). Our price is worth heaps on paper but we can't find one to move to within our price bracket that's any better.

lol twentypence - you've just decribed my shopping horror when I arrived. Was buying heaps of food, having it go off as it was fresh, deciding what to cook from a cook book but no ingredients as everything is seasonal (check out alot of uk cook books they are written for food being available all year) etc... I think that's what I find quite 'interesting' here I think we live quite basically - essentials only - no holidays abroad, meals out every week etc but we are no better off financially at the end of the month. COnsidering the govt are encouraging people to save for their old age - they are making it pretty hard to have any money left at the end of the month with taxes and interest rates imo. Having said that the trade is as shells said lifestyle, better class sizes etc.

[Sibble]

oh god ignore the typing

[twentypence]

You've really got to get used to eating asparagus for a month, strawberries for a month, pumpkin for a month etc. At the moment I am sick of cherries and apricots!

[phdlifeneedsanewlife]

I'd forgotten what it was like having half the shop be fresh produce - first time we went home after living in the UK I was gobsmacked how much f&v there was!

everyone keeps telling us how dire the house prices are now. but I think, you get a lot more house and garden for your dollar. and spend a bit less on heating

[MrsJohnCusack]

yes the whole supermarket thing takes a lot of getting used to

but it does encourage us to eat better in this house.

I think when I do make it back to the UK for a visit Tesco will probably terrify me