"A median income household in Australia with a 20% deposit could afford a home of $513,000, while the national median dwelling value is $815,000, she said."
Well, it's all there in a single sentence. House prices are lapping wage growth, like Usian Bolt racing... me. A corollary to this is that a high income can now only purchase a sub-average home. What a world. Is this the Australian dream? Where a person needs to work like a Trojan for decades to get to a high income, so they can finally afford a dilapidated home.
This is where economic growth leads us; to a land of haves/have-nots. Economic growth will always lead to inequality, for a number of factors, one of which is the Cantillon Effect, which was outlined 300 years ago, which states that the closer you are to the King (government), the more of the public money you will receive.
The Baby Boomers have been in power for a couple of decades, and of course, they have morphed the economy to represent and nurture their own financial circumstances, which is the ability to purchase property back in the 60s/70s/80s, when it was dirt cheap and plentiful, and ride the wave of increasing values, until now where it is scarce.
So, for example, how would a recent migrant to Australia ever hope to purchase property?
Young people, like my kids, will only be able to own property by inheritance. My friend, his son is early 30s, with a family and 2 young kids, good paying job, and they are unable to save for a necessary down payment because they are paying $800/wk rent.
So when the Prime Minister's tout economic growth as the single measure of a functioning society, the young people are very confused, because none of that applies to them. They see property values out of touch, as they go to Woolies and spend $1.20 per potato. And then they wake up on Monday morning, to work in their causal jobs without any benefits like annual/sick/parental leave, job security, redundancy pay, career development, workplace rights, fair work benefits such as Long Service Leave, financial stability where banks see them as less secure, etc etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/08/australia-housing-market-widening-gap-income-home-values
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