House prices in different countries

[Tex 3]

AH yes the X Gen vs the Y Gen. We're are creating them MB . I got lucky with travel after high school but only because my Dad worked for Qantas. Thought my life had ground to a halt when we bought our first house for *GULP* 130k and had a mortgage of 110k HA HA HA owe twice that now but have so many fond memories (a few bad ones too unfortunately)and lots of useless qualifications, well not useless but not anything to help pay the bills. Rode the housing bubble quite well but fell a bit when it popped or at least deflated somewhat.

[panhead_pete 27]

If young people want to get into the property market there is so much FREE good advice out there. Google Somersoft for one such forum. The guys there helped me heaps.

 

It cracks me up when people expect to find all the bargains on the internet etc. My 1st four houses came about because I knocked on doors. The next one because I went to an Auction and got talking to the guy across the road and ended up buying the place next to him. One after that from flyers. All under market value = instant equity and equity is the key. Not boasting just showing that there are many ways to start.

 

If you want to get serious about it you must treat it like a job and invest the time looking then working to secure a place. I must have well over 15hrs walking around Echoland looking at every block and house and its only about 12 streets, I know what the market value is there so when I found a place under that, I moved foward, just need to finalise the deal. NONE of the young crew I know who whinge about house prices are willing to work at it. The first place should look like crap but but be in a good place. Building equity is as easy as White Knight Tile paint, Solver house paint and Ikea. Sell and do it again, just a slightly better location. 10 years of that and you can own what you want.

 

or

 

Stay single, dont have kids, get a great education and then go work in a high paying industry and use the above stratigies

[HelperElfMissy 42]

I hope that while we are 'creating' GenY kids who experience all these lovely advantages, we are also teaching them realities and how to live within their means.

 

Home ownership has been a 'most can do it' in Aus, but in the UK the first mortgage has been tough going for a long while - most of my Brit family members have required leg up's from the folks to get into their first house.

 

Working on imparting the skills to save for home ownership on #1 at the moment. Including budgeting/saving with purpose and good food on a budget.

 

Getting started is the hardest.

[panhead_pete 27]

Steal 1/2 his pay, thats what my mum did

[gerard 6]

We walked into a model home one day and were surprised to realize that we could afford the exact home we were looking at. Did more research and found that homes were really quite affordable in our small/mid-sized town here in Japan, even for people a lot younger than us. You can get a new starter home for around 200K US - cheaper if you get something used. And with a mortgage easily under 2% there's not really much barrier to entry. Problem is that homes depreciate in value of course -- something lots of foreigners complain about, but with mortgage rates as low as they have been for the past 15 years at least, it beats renting for sure imo and it's very doable.

 

Much more expensive in big cities of course tho. And you get much less.

[Go Native 70]

I've looked at investing in property up this way. You don't invest in property in Japan for capital appreciation but for very good rental returns. Kutchan offers very good returns of up around 15% per annum. Because of the relatively low cost of property it wouldn't be too hard to buy say a block of 20 or so apartments and damn near retire living off the rental income! Only problem for me is that I can't access finance here as I don't have permanent residency...

[gerard 6]

Seems like there are half empty apartments all over the place down here... And rent -hense rental incomes- seem low too.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete

Steal 1/2 his pay, thats what my mum did

That is not a bad idea and one we have considered.
I am constantly shocked at the total rubbish he wastes his earnings on!

[Go Native 70]

Originally Posted By: ger

Seems like there are half empty apartments all over the place down here... And rent -hense rental incomes- seem low too.

Kutchan does pretty well because it is a bit of a regional centre for government offices and there's a reasonable sized army base here. Because all these government workers get subsidised rent as part of their employment contracts the rent charged here is higher than many other towns nearby. It costs almost the same to rent in Kutchan as it does in Sapporo. So rental returns are significant here and occupancy pretty good. In fact many new apartment blocks have been built in recent years.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Ger, what % do you have to put down as a deposit, roughly speaking, to get a mortgage from a Japanese bank?

[gerard 6]

Last time I was up there, around 5 years ago we were talking about the prospect of buying property up there. Just pipe-dreams, really but we'd actually probably have a tidy profit my now.

[gerard 6]

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver

Ger, what % do you have to put down as a deposit, roughly speaking, to get a mortgage from a Japanese bank?

Not sure exactly but it's not much. Maybe 10%, but you might have to have guarantor or something like that if you're just scraping in at the line. Credit is strange sometimes though. Some banks said I needed a PR visa, but others didn't. I was denied a basic credit card a few years ago but our bank didn't seem to have any qualms about lending me a big chunk of cash.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Originally Posted By: ger

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver

Ger, what % do you have to put down as a deposit, roughly speaking, to get a mortgage from a Japanese bank?

Not sure exactly but it's not much. Maybe 10%, but you might have to have guarantor or something like that if you're just scraping in at the line. Credit is strange sometimes though. Some banks said I needed a PR visa, but others didn't. I was denied a basic credit card a few years ago but our bank didn't seem to have any qualms about lending me a big chunk of cash.

yeah that sounds exactly like Japan eh? There is no rule across the board, just piecemeal depending on who you talk to and if they are in a good mood or not!!

[Go Native 70]

Originally Posted By: ger

Last time I was up there, around 5 years ago we were talking about the prospect of buying property up there. Just pipe-dreams, really but we'd actually probably have a tidy profit my now.

I did go into a joint venture with one of the big developers here on a property development which I luckily was able to sell just before the GFC. Then when I sent the profit back to Aus the $AUD had dropped like a stone and I almost doubled my profit due to exchange rate! That was really nice

Not that I am any sort of investment genius or anything, all just pure luck!

[gerard 6]

Yeah, I can imagine. Playing the currency market alone successfully would have equalled huge profits around that time.

[Mintyjulep 0]

I have to say, I am apparently Gen Y (Mr Minty is Gen X) and I knew NOTHING about money, I just thought that one day I'd have a nice house in the same area as my family.

 

When you're a spoilt kid you don't realise how much things actually cost, so you just buy them & ask family for money if you run out. The exciting thing is that once you start learning to be a real grown up, you can make yourself afford anything and save money at the same time.

 

I find it interesting what someone said about renting until they have saved up 2-300k. That is a long time to be renting, even if you are saving 20k to 30k a year. Not to mention that in 10 years time houses will cost even more. When do you plan to marry, have children, travel, etc. Will you just wait and save and then one day move into some perfect house on the waterfront. What have all your friends done? Are you all paying off other peoples mortgages?

Once you have a foot in the door it's there. Even if you just buy a property out west and keep it as a renter and don't live in it. Just keep moving up the ladder, let other people pay your mortgage.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

I agree Minty - get in the earlier the better.

I have been encouraging my kiddo's to stay at home for a few years and buy a small house in the suburbs and rent it out. Add to the desperately short rental market, have the majority of your monthly mortgage paid for by the rent and then in a few years time have a place with a bit of equity that you can either live in or continue renting out while you travel or whatever.

[Mintyjulep 0]

Good on you MB - just remind them that it will help them afford to keep boarding renting is so expensive and transient feeling.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

WTF is Gen Y and Gen X??

[Curt 1]

I'd like to know that too.

Is there a Z?

[Tex 3]

Just an ad hoc (western) generation calendar

 

Baby boomers up to '61

Gen X 1961 to 1981 or so

Gen Y 1981- early 2000's

 

not sure what it is beyond that

 

GOOGLE it

[Tubby Beaver 209]

so if your brth year is between 1961 and 1981 (roughly), that makes you Gen X?

 

who made up these titles and why?

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Been around since Moses was a boy Tubby!

At least here in Australia.

 

There are interesting population trends to look at and classifying these groups as 'generations' makes the statistical analysis easier.

 

My Parents are Baby Boomers.

They are part of the massive cohort where men returned home from war and populated the nations again. There are a LOT of them, and things change when the baby boomers get to that age and stage. Baby boomers were responsible for transitioning to women being able to work after they were married and had children. When the baby boomers had babies - the products for babies improved and day care started to become more acceptable. Many other changes have occurred due to the huge 'people power' pressure of the baby boomers, but the biggest concern now is baby boomers in retirement. Superannuation push is happening BECAUSE of the baby boomers. Our lower birth rate countries can not afford to keep them in the same way as we used to look after our elderly.

 

I am a Generation X. We are marvellous.

 

My kids are Gen Y. And they are known for being tech savvy yet decidedly unmotivated and 'entitled'. They are not keen on doing 'just any' job - they will hold out (unemployed) for the perfect job.

[Tex 3]

Originally Posted By: Mamabear

I am a Generation X. We are marvellous.

That's right MB.

The terms were coined by various people in social commentary over time and the easy answer to your Question TB is that some (many) find it a simple way to broadly define particular age groups or 'generations' as people born in a particular bracket of time which also reflects (or is said to - very broadly) changes in socio economic features, tech, world views and expectaions, attitudes etc etc.

You know when old fogies like to say "Back in my time... blah blah blah" well "my time" is what makes it their generation...

[gerard 6]

I'm generation X, I suppose but I don't like the label and I thought that the Winonna Ryder movie was cheesy too. Statistical trends and fancy labels and stereotypes that the media latches on to are two different things. Back in the 90's the buzz was that we were all searching for something more meaningful as we were entering society because we were the first generation who would be worse-off than our parents.

 

If anything, we've been a bubble generation up until now though. All that deep emo-angst stuff was just flattery and media-hype.