Due to the baby boomers after WWII finished world population Western Europe and North America increased as a result human evolved to have the dream of buying a house and start to have a family. This continuous cycle has made what we know of the Great Australian Dream formed and shaped into a collective dream, one of owning a detached house on a fenced block of land. The dream is mingled with the way we live and structure our lives. This structure is linear in many ways, we finish secondary school education, many go on to complete a university degree, have children, build careers, and along the way purchase a house in the suburbs.
Can we aspire to the same dream today? Is the dream still the purchase of a house in the suburbs that is paid off and providing us with a secure retirement when we age? In his novel, ‘The Great Australian Dream: A Guide to Buying Your First Home’, Peter Boehm believes that the dream is slipping out of reach for many Australians, especially generation X and Y. The media perspective is very gloomy, it seems our generation don’t have a desire the buy a house, so it would seem the dream has changed. The media also seem to portray our generation as unambitious and generally in a negative light.
Our generation is ambitious, and we have aspirations, it just that the economy has changed what we can practically desire. The cost of real estate today is far higher than it was for the generations before us. This is one of the main reasons we are at a huge disadvantage to past young buyers.
It is not the end the world if you don’t buy a house. The younger generation are flexible and smart and have reacted by trying different alternatives to the typical ‘quarter acre block’. For these reasons I firmly understand that the economy has changed the need of the Australian Dream for the better, not the worse.
My generation are at a huge disadvantage compared to past young buyers like yourself. Today, the medium price in Melbourne is $615,000 and an average salary is about $75,400. To put this into perspective, annual salaries as a percentage to the prices of property have decreased from 23% in 1970, down to 8 % in 2016. For example, if we calculate living expenses of a middle-class family with two parents and two kids living in Victoria, their living expenses per week is $905, turn that into yearly, that’s $47,040. If we add the bully called mortgage expenses of $530 a week, that’s $27,557, leaving the family just $19,483 to live on.
On the surface this would seem that my generation is worse off, however many people believe that every generation is smarter than the last. I believe that my generation is not only smarter but more flexible in achieving different alternatives of pursing the dream of home ownership. My generation is finding alternatives such as house-sized apartments, renting or simple going back the basics of living at home with the parents. As many hates may say why would you ever want to move back in with your parents. The main reason why many adults are moving back in is simply the cost of housing. With the extra costs of living, many may find it hard to buy a house with the current housing market. By buying an apartment in the capital city, the older generation criticize us for not bringing up a family in a larger home. However, by downsizing the dream, we don’t have the pressure of a mortgage like other generations in the past. With searching different ways of living, we can be more flexible when the time to buy is necessary and not to rush our decision of buying a house.
Buying a home is a significant part of a person’s life, and we all have our own reasons why buying a house is important. These reasons are varied and may include pressure from friends and family, the right time to settle down, job security and many others.