dick smith on why houses expensive, page-54

from the RBA -

"Over the last 20 years, the cost of building a new house has increased nearly fourfold. The increase can be partly explained by a 32.7% increase in the average size of new houses."


FOURFOLD!!! in 20 years. can you calculate me the inflation increase over 20 years Dex? then you'll have your answer.

Conclusions

The average cost of building a new house has increased substantially since 1987-88, on average increasing by 6.8% each year. The average size of a new house has increased 32.7% from 181m2 in 1987-88 to 239m2 in 2007-08. As a result of the above and other factors, the relative cost of new houses has increased in the twenty years to June 2008.


and RBA conforms what I've already said above with annual average increase of 7.7% from 98-2008. Much faster than the previous decade.



http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/featurearticlesbytitle/BEF19E4062997FEFCA25759A001A1E49?OpenDocument