Half A Million Doesn't Buy You Much These Days

House hunting. Gosh, I think back five years ago when $150k seemed like a lot of money to pay for a modest house. Last weekend we had a bit of free time and had a look at a few places. First one was in slightly sought after Victoria Park. It was only two bedrooms, had terrible fitout (the kitchen cupboards were more for display than function) but it had a large block. Could do something with it but the interior would need to undergo a radical rejuvenation. And so would my mortgage.

Next was a hilltop three bedroom place which appeared to be owned by the real estate agent. It had terrible fireside shelving desperately in need of replacing, no built-in robes and the exterior brick veneer was falling off. Very shabby proposition with a complete makeover of the kitchen and thirty years old wallpaper a necessity. The agent asked me what I thought and I said that, "A D9 would be a good idea." He understood. The asking price was $479k - $499k.

Last place we viewed was in St James, I think. The tenant was still at in residence during the home open, which is not acceptable behaviour, and so all the lights were turned off inside except in the room that he occupied for most of the time. Talk about dark inside. There were also cracks in the walls. The backyard wasn't huge but sizable enough. None of the three bedrooms, one of which was in a sleepout, had closets and once a the bed and a clothes hanger were installed there was very little room in any of them. One visitor took less than a minute to decide that the property was unsuitable before high tailing it out of there. And they were expecting $499k for this dump?

Like I said, you don't get much for half a million dollars these days. How on earth are ordinary working class people still able to afford to buy houses?