Tickets for The Who went on sale last Sunday. At $99 to $199. Yikes. I considered booking, depending on whether or not good but cheap seats could be had. But then I found the damn Ticketek web site demanding some long-forgotten username and password (with no hints on the e-mail they had sent me), so decided stuff it, I’ll save my money for a better cause. And as the friend who originally got me into The Who commented, with now half the original band gone, it should be called Who’s Left.
That house I looked at a few weeks ago, the one that required everything under the sun to be done to it (or you could flatten it I suppose), sold last Saturday for $441,500. Words fail me. People say the bottom has dropped out the real estate market, but it seems ludicrous prices still abound. All the more reason for the aspiring first home owner like me to save my $99 and not blow it all at once on a concert ticket, I suppose.
Meanwhile the house next to where I used to live, having sold for just under half a million three years ago, is up for sale again. I’m not sure what the house itself is like because I never looked inside it, but at least it’s on a huge block of land, and hey, those annoying neighbours they used to have next door have moved out now…
Now, if it would just stop pissing down rain before I have to leave the house to go to work, that would be ideal.
7 replies on “Quick update”
One reason to keep renting I suppose. There’s just way that you can justify paying that much money for a house. It’s amazing. We’re into the whole savnig thing at the moment and at the rate that prices are increasing, it feels as though it’s just never going to happen.
I can’t believe people are willing to put themselves into so much debt. It’s an amazing amount of money for a house that I really don’t think is worth that much. And yet, people will always put themselves into debt. I just don’t want to be owing that much to the bank!!
Home ownership. aRGH. So beyond ny grasp, ever.
Hmmmm …. commenting after a drinks function is boviously proving a poor idea.
I am suss of anything that gets a big push…as does mortgages and home ownership. Lawyers, the govt, real eastate agents, etc all get a FAT WAD OF CASH for each sale. Then you are locked in and must stay at work until it’s paid off or sold, thus ensuring you continue to pay taxes, settle, and have kids. I only want a place so I can make it a minimalist white shoe-box. Sadly places like that to rent are too expensive. But yes I agree with you all.
I always wondered how you get *that* much money legally.
I’m eternally glad I got in before the boom :)
But really – houses can only stay that expensive while people are willing to pay. It’ll have to drop away once people have their reality checks and decide to keep renting for a while longer.
Either that or they all build out past Pakenham.
your post has helped me plummet further into my i’ll-never-be-free-enough-from-debt-to-consider-a-mortgage blues. all i want is room for a table big enough to entertain more than one friend at a time. and a nice courtyard for my cat. woe is me.
It’s not so much what people are willing to pay, but what banks are willing to lend.
If the supply of credit was either reduced, or it was made dramatically more expensive (interest rates to 10%) prices would plummet. But with tighter finance those with spare cash will snap up bargains while others miss out entirely.
An interesting exercise is to calculate the economics of buying your home versus renting + buying several rental properties.
Because the tax system subsidises investment debt and makes other expenses deductible PLUS you have higher income (from tenants paying rent) you’ll be ahead. This is despite having to pay capital gains tax when you sell and no longer qualifying for FHOG.