Comment on Melbourne goes from among the most to least expensive capital cities

• TheHolm@aussie.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Honestly, I do not know. Twenty years ago, when I bought my house, I had a choice: continue to rent or buy a house in a place from which I had to commute 1.5 hours one way to get to work. I chose to buy a house. I guess many people are not willing to make such a sacrifice. But the relative cost of houses has gone up. Back then, I paid four times my pre-tax yearly salary for it. These days, it would be eight times, so we can’t really compare. But when I look at young people whining about not being able to buy a house while changing their iPhones every year and driving new, expensive cars, it raises a question.

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  • redwattlebird@lemmings.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How many young people have you actually spoken to? Or is this just casual observation from Sky News? Because I know a whole bunch of younger people now that I’ve gone back to uni to switch careers after 20 years in the work force, and I can tell you that they’re absolutely struggling.

    They’re on 2hr commutes one way, facing a job market that asks for senior roles only or entry level jobs that barely allow for any savings. They’ve got broken phones that they’ve been using for years because it’s too expensive to get new ones. They don’t drive because they can’t afford upkeep on a car. They either catch public transport or ride bicycles and work their arses off while their employers take advantage of them by firing them when they reach 21, which is the age where employers are legally required to pay you the national minimum salary.

    They’re bloody thankful when they get offered a job paying $55k/year before tax.

    So, I don’t know about you but these younger people are massively screwed and we’ll be screwed as retirees because there will be more oldies than there are young in the work force.

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    • TheHolm@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Ok. Under young I meant < 35 yo. Anyone <21 are just kids, no one expect them to make long term financial decisions. By 35 you should set on the trade and have decent salary. My observation comes from observing “young” guys in IT. Shiny iPhones, but no though about house.

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      • KaChilde@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Is “new phones” the modern “avocado toast”?

        A lot of the younger generation has given up on home ownership. If they saved their ‘shiny phone’ money, it still wouldn’t put a scratch on the increasing price of buying property. The phone might not be a sound financial decision, but it’s the only joy and control some people can get.

        And coming from a ‘young’ guy in IT with a 5 year old phone (that replaced his 10 year old phone when it completely carked it): it’s not the phone that’s making it hard for me to buy a house.

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      • frutiger@mastodon.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        @TheHolm @redwattlebird by this metric I'm a young homeowner (well, almost, five figures left to go on the mortgage). I got into the market only thanks to friends and family support. My parents covered all of my expenses whilst I saved, and I split already cheap rent with my besties. It's all luck of the draw sadly, it has very little to do with working hard and is more to do with who you know/how generous people are. The market is fked

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      • redwattlebird@lemmings.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        That’s a very big generalisation though right; just some blokes in IT with shiny phones.

        And, further, even if they stopped getting new phones, that’s hardly going to equate to a 5, 10, 20% deposit on a $500k studio apartment. Maybe it’s not that they’re lazy, maybe they’ve just given up.

        And with AI muscling people out of that industry, can you even blame them?

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