Today’s homebuyers often do so at a later age than their parents, who typically entered the housing market in their late 20s or early 30s.Today’s homebuyers often do so at a later age than their parents, who typically entered the housing market in their late 20s or early 30s.Today, house prices are so high, and living costs so unrelenting, that many people are taking out loans they will never pay off with the sombre knowledge they will head into their retirement years with substantial debt.
It’s a sum that is both hard to pay off and insufficient to buy close to the Brisbane suburbs where he grew up.“Is the aim even to pay it off, or get to retirement age and sell, and hope that downsizing into an apartment will cover the cost?The struggle for dual-income households to buy appropriate housing for their family needs is fuelling a generational divide that is changing how people view their mortgage.
Aged 58, the reader’s mortgage is $454,000 and more than 50% of her teacher’s salary is funnelled into repayments. While the reader’s financial circumstances were hindered by a divorce several years ago, a relentless increase in living costs that includes fast-rising utilities, insurance and interest rates have made it worse.Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues.
Sebastian Watkins, co-founder of online mortgage broker Lendi, said people were increasingly buying first homes they don’t ever intend to live in.