"...The other thing to bear in mind is that the majority only own their own home and it is surprising what you can cut back on and how little you can survive on to continue paying that mortgage at the high points which will not last long anyway...."
UT, a lot of people are not as wise as yourself in the planning.
The australian house price bubble is the direct result of cheap, accessible credit and government sanctioned inflationary measures. Once the tide turns, the counter trend will be swift. Stagnation will happen (only after house prices have already crashed).
Every property bubbles that went BANG were in countries with majority home ownership.
One should know it only takes a minority to either propel or depress prices.
This is why a "relatively small sum" called the FHBG managed to inflate the bubble many times (orders of mangnitude) the dollar amount of the grant.
Likewise, all it tokk was for a small subprime population to turn bad before it tiggered off an avalanche.
Well, I am simply offering my views as you have offered yours...very well.
