patrick.net

Australia? how sad for the landlords of exile prisoner renters.

Australia's real estate is due for a correction. Possibly a hard one. (And I say this as a homeowner who also owns an investment property.) But the current state of play in Canberra may not be a sign of this happening across the country. Imagine if DC were separated from other cities by a plane ride instead of a drive, and that there were no particular industry anywhere around other than the civil service, and that the government had just begun firing the hell out of most of the government departments. That's what's happening in the ACT at the moment.

The real estate market is outrageously overpriced in Australia, though. If somebody has the balls to enforce the foreign ownership laws, we may finally get the drop in prices I've been predicting (with the benefit of my readership of this site) for the past twelve years.

Australia very closely resembles California in one respect: A propensity to build out instead of up for one, and create ridiculous long commutes.

Thunder,

Tell me about it. The "land and home" packages offered more than an hour and a half commute from the centres of major cities, generally without public transport, decent schools or hospitals are generating insane traffic problems and associated social ills. Only within the last five years has there been a realisation that inner city and inner suburb apartment living can be something for families and working couples rather than university students and empty-nesters. As a NYC transplant, the fetish for ownership of a plot of dirt baffled me, though I'm now a hypocrite as far as this goes.