It really makes my blood boil when older investors who bought in to the Australian housing market when houses were 2-3 times ONE person's salary say that younger people just need to suck it up and make sacrifices just like the old days. It is NOTHING like the old days - the scale of debt required to buy a tiny old house is absolutely mind boggling. The Australian housing market is one for the history books, and will be studied like all bubbles in years to come, with heaps of lessons for government in what not to do, including stamp duty, negative gearing, first home vendors grants, complex and bureaucratic restrictions on land supply and development, exemptions of housing from capital gains tax and no means testing of housing for pensions. Were it not for the sticky fingers of government intervention all over the housing market, we would never have gotten ourselves into this bubble mess and now it is going to have to be ugly for recent buyers. I also find it interesting UT that you say you have an interest in speculative stocks - if you are any good at that game I assume you take an interest in the price you pay at the entry point?! Or do you only buy into your stocks when they hit one in 100 years record highs? Buying into Aussie housing is just like picking a portfolio of stocks that have just hit lifetime high prices!
