At the moment in the Australian media there is a huge outcry about the housing affordability crisis. Some stats I heard on the radio yesterday say that only 39% of houses are affordable now in comparision with 96% in 2001. Where I live in the north of Brisbane there is a group of houses where a high rate of crime was reported. I went for a walk there the other day and began to think to myself what’s happened that the present state of affairs has come to this. Looking at the big cities of the world like London, New York or Paris it would seem that this is not a new problem for them. Housing affordability may have been a luxury in Australia for years but now it’s a luxury that I know I can’t afford.
How does one cope with these realities? A bit further north from me there were groups of families using the exhibition grounds as a temporary accommodation because they couldn’t find homes to rent. In the Philippines there are entire shanty towns built out of rubbish and left over bits of metal. A positive for me is that I can say, “at least I can afford it.” However, I cannot see anytime soon that I won’t be renting. I have never owned my own home and if things keep increasing then I probably never will. Thank God I can afford to rent but that is not really much of a comfort when you are kicked out after the house is sold. I mean we have lived in eight houses in the past eleven years. In this last five years we have moved five times.
It’s not all bad though. When I can eventually afford a house at least I can say that I know what I like. Although I still dream of owning a home it will be many, many years before I can afford it (given present trends). Are you in the same boat?
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