In an article I saw the average size of mortgages in Australia had hot an all time high. The average loan was for $367,000. My mind can’t even comprehend a loan that size or how you’d repay it. That’s more than our whole house cost!
In December last year it was reported Australia had overtaken USA as the country building the largest houses. The trend is towards a family room, home theatres, parent’s retreats etc. The average size of the Aussie home according to experts is now 215 square meters which translates to around 23 square feet. But that’s the average. Some homes are much larger than that. In Sydney many are 263 square meters.
What struck me with the article was that couples have put their house and mortgage above the relationship and family. The concern is about buying the biggest house even though it means both husband and wife working, even though it might mean taking on two jobs to keep up the repayments, even though relationship and family time suffers.
As Mick put it ‘many work like crazy in jobs with long hours to get the big home that no-one’s ever there to enjoy.’ Have we simply become too greedy and materialistic?
People these days want the biggest and the best it appears of everything and they want it now. I’d suggest many are not prepared to work for it and scrimp and make do as much as some previous generations were.
The other day a couple I knew was elated. They’d finished paying off their modest home. They are around 60 years old. The person at their bank couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to go back into debt to renovate or build, additional rooms.
Talking to others of a similar age, one of the joys is being mortgage free finally and not having to watch every dollar as closely after years of struggling to make do. And yet the interesting thing is many who have had to struggle and make do claim it bound them closer together as a couple and that it made them appreciate each other and what they got after they eventually got it. What do you think?
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