Warnie please read it again . I know your an optimist as am I and I truly think it sad that some are in stress but the article clearly states that 45% of the firt time buyers are in mortgage stress NOT a percentage of those 45 % .
What's interesting is they actually surveyed 26,000 people where as many surveys will only ask several hundred .
I beg to differ re having a mortgage as a stress as the last time I had one I made it a hobby and or a competition to pay off the darn thing as quickly as possible to beat the banks at their own game . Banks used to just love throwing money around as that is how they gain business and earn a living . One can beat them by not accepting what they offer and also when gaining aloan paying it back as quickly as possible . BEAT THOSE DAM BANKERS ! SELL whatever u can to pay off that mortgage , rent out a spare room , stick a van in the backyard and rent it out , take a 2nd job etc etc . Many of us have done that when taking out our first loan .
I seriously cringed at the state of the property market before Christmas and as a brief story to show the insanity. I was viewing a property in the Dandenongs in Dec , just a cheapy to renovate and tie me over for a year and was about to lodge an offer around 350k as the sellers were apparently keen to move on and it had been on the market for a long while when someone comes in and pays 380k . I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT and I thought even 350 was big money for what it was .
Once again , I hope Australians don't go into major property stress and I hope and prey that all do well but I fear that won't be the case . It just looks alot like 1980 and 1990 and or even 2000 to me which implies major lows in 2011-2012 . But I do note that no 2 decade ends are exactly the same .