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07/06/24
09:52
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Originally posted by rona142:
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HECS has been around for a long long time, if you attended uni in the last 30 years you left with a HECS debt. It's not a new problem, some have been caught out by interest rates spiking but paying interest on your HECS debt was just a reality 20 years ago. People just got complacent in the low interest rate environment. I work with plenty of people in their early to mid 20s and the dream of home ownership is still present. I spent most of my weekends last year attending open homes as we were upgrading our property and there was still tonnes of prospective first home buyers going through the same properties as us. I live and work in Sydney. I see the homelessness first hand everyday. I can tell you there hasn't been a spike in young people living rough. What I do see is a huge increase in people that are 40+ and even over 60 begging/sleeping rough around the CBD. I highly suspect they've been priced out of the rental market. Previously they probably rented a very basic unit in a low socio-economic area for $200-300/week. These same places are now going for $400/week and with other cost of living pressures they just can't afford it.
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I agree the dream remains present as it is mostly an emotional rather than a rational want. The maths is different now. No matter what you say the number of weeks to pay for a home now is more than double what it has been historically. This is the simple maths of the situation. That maths has real consequences and represents a transfer of wealth - unearned wealth and a burden placed on those who come later. That burden is conventionally called serfdom.