Why rent? Is it really
expensive to own?
The place I'm in would probably sell for 600k or so. People say you're 'throwing money away' when you rent, but with a mortgage I'd be throwing away more than $310/wk in interest repayments without touching the principal and my weekly expenses would rise by about $700, which would hurt.
It cracks me up when people tell you how much money they made on their house. 'We paid 450 and now it's worth 600!' Oh? and the near 40k settlement costs, bank fees, CGT (no rollover in Aus), and money crapped away on interest repayments, plus if you sell it you are presumably going to have to buy something else? You'd need a favorable market to come out ahead of a renter and justify the higher living costs unless you had a very sizeable downpayment. Just had that boom market and it ended 18 months ago, so there are a lot of true believers running around out there but I honestly don't think most of them are anywhere near as far ahead as their simplistic reckoning makes out. Can't see another bubble right around the corner, to be sure.
Screw being housepoor (or carpoor for that matter). A lot of folks are living in 800k houses and they can't afford to go out to dinner.

Mortgaged right to their limit and then they wonder why they're stressed or why there's tension in their marriage.
If I was 100% I was staying in Aus I'd buy some land with a minimum lost on interest repayments and build with cash, no loans. I won't work for a bank.
Yes, I have a pet.