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The future of Australian property prices

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skcots said:
So much the same annual cost as living in Sydney then.
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Not really. You'd be about $7k worse off. I imagine for someone earning $75k/year that's not chicken feed. Let's say you're earning the Sydney median in Houston, that's ~US$52,500. You'll be left with US$42,140, so you will have paid AU$14,800 in income tax + FICA. In Australia you would have paid $17,422 in tax. So you're about $2,600 better off on income tax (but you've got no healthcare). Then you have to add $9,400 in property taxes. So you end up $6,800 worse off in Houston. I'm not suggesting houses are cheap in Australia but wages are substantially lower in Houston and property is more highly taxed so you'd expect property to be cheaper.

skcots said:
Google maps says 26 minutes with no traffic or helicopter.
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Well then I'm wrong.
 
Guys, guys!

I really thought you lot would be smart enough not to use exchange rates for comparative valuations.

Not so long ago it would have made the Houston house even cheaper.

You have to use the earnings of a family that might live in a house like that (and property taxes ARE a good point thanks McLovin, but even then only as a component of overall tax take). WIthout doing the maths, I believe it still represents better value than Oz... and in particular the cramped hovel that BillM offered up.

I had a colleague come out from Texas for some CPE, she was stunned, no, completely ****ing blown away by ( as a ratio to achievable net earnings in my field) a/ our far greater cost of living and b/ the ridiculous cost of real estate here.... and this was western burbs Brisbane, not even Sodom and Gomorrah to the south.
 

Comparing Sydney and Melbourne to Sodom and Gomorrah is by far my favourite part of this thread so far.
 

There is no question that property prices are too high in Australia. We just paid north of 500k for a 3 bedroom TH in Morningside. I could have bought a mansion in Maine, on the water (waterfront).

The question is, how long will they stay like this? No one knows....until the Chinese decide to start selling maybe?

The US i feel is not a great comparision. Wages are the polar oppostite of Union land....My mate that works for a Michigan based steel works makes 30 per hour double time the entire time he is seconded to here, skilled trade too. Him and i had drinks with an old pal of mine from B'rat that we met in TL, a Union rep no less that drives a water hose on night shift, he was making 25 / hour straight time! That 400k house can seem out of reach to those guys...My mates house in Michigan is a shack, he paid 30k for it on 2 acres. Thats in the thumb, middle of no where. Down the road in the 'city' close to Bad Axe, they'll pay 130k for decent 3 bedroom place on a couple of acres.
 
CanOz said:
..My mates house in Michigan is a shack, he paid 30k for it on 2 acres. Thats in the thumb, middle of no where. Down the road in the 'city' close to Bad Axe, they'll pay 130k for decent 3 bedroom place on a couple of acres.
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but your mate could buy a crappy place cheap, I am afraid in australia, this is not the case.
I am actually surprised by the lack of differential between capital city commuting range and real outer area with no job;
Alice Spring would not offer you a shack on 2 acres for 50kAUD..
I check just in case
 
140k cheapest place in AS greater area
1 bedroom motel room style..for "investor"
seriously
 
qldfrog said:
140k cheapest place in AS greater area
1 bedroom motel room style..for "investor"
seriously
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Alice is a little touristy....

In my mind someplace similar to the thumb might be like Smithton Tas.
 
tasmania is not exactly texas in term of comparison but very seriously:
What/where is the cheapest place in australia nowadays?
And how much is this cheapest place, taking it as a given it will not be touristy, offer any employment or great environment...
That is what I mean, in Oz even crap is dear, and relatively uniformally dear
cheapest I could find is a trailer park in stanley tasmania for 109000!! yeap
Even Smithton Tas is too dear
 
Whilst historically Queenstown has been absolutely tied to mining, a point that's extremely obvious as soon as you get there, these days the town is trying (with some success) to reinvent itself as a tourist destination.

The West Coast Wilderness Railway (steam) is the big one but there's also a few other things. Tours down the mine is one thing (pretty sure it's the only mine in Australia where literally anyone can go underground for a look) and also there's a rafting business set up on the King River. They've also got the Queenstown Heritage & Arts festival going with considerable success with the most recent one.

Employment is still a huge problem, but they haven't simply rolled over to die as many other former mining towns have done around the country. Population has dropped, thus creating a surplus of housing, but the town isn't dead and locals seem pretty determined not to end up that way.
 
Where's the trees, bro? Actually, I don't mind the flat, windy, saltbush and sand environment.
 

I more or less agree with you, wayne. I only used exchange rates to be illustrative. There are so many inputs that go into determining property prices that it's pretty hard to make broad generalisations (beyond the obvious that prices are high in Australia).

After income tax and health insurance I'd say you would be at best in the same situation, disposable income wise, as in Australia. Add in the property tax and you're really setting a pretty low ceiling for the average home-buyer before they max out their budget. You could of course make a reasonable argument that a tax on property to keep gearing down isn't such a bad thing.
 

Oh yeah, and I'll repeat myself, you have to actually live in Houston. I'd call it Lagos without the charm.

If it slid into the Gulf of Mexico I don't think anyone would shed a tear.

Check it out sometime. The weather is usually about 35 degrees with 100% humidity, and you've always got a good chance of being belted by a hurricane. It's dirty, it's one of the most violent cities in the US, it's racially segregated and it's endless suburban sprawl, with all the culture that entails (ie strip malls with Old Country Buffet's and Denny's).

When I lived in the US I went out with a girl who was from there. Her family lived "inside the belt" which is the tony part of town, and they were certainly not poor. I still couldn't get to the airport fast enough.
 
Gringotts Bank said:
Reverse image search yields nothing. Looks like somewhere north of Perth...yes?

edit - I see Geraldton. Is this your development trains?
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Suburb about 7kms North of Geraldton called Glenfield Beach. Stage 1 is underway with titles in January 2016.

Not my development (as in ownership) but is funded by a global hedge fund. I get the job of branding/advertising & marketing for this one. Should do OK but the market is very slow here but in saying that the level of inquiry has been steady

Just had the sod turning ceremony and a bit of press/editorial. Advertising campaign is about to ramp up over the next few weeks.
 
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