Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
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Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#2The problem with New Zealand seems to be that if you have an education, it is often no where else to use that education than Auckland or Wellington. I have never been to New Zealand, but the problem seems to be very similar to the housing problems we have in Norway. The sub arctic capital city of Oslo, has ridiculously high prices.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#3Housing prices and income have a skewed distribution (more like a lognormal than a normal distribution); therefore the mean is higher than the median.
What's the median home price and median income? Also, can the average household get a mortgage on these houses? Affordability is pretty much arbitrary and depends on the banks' lending criteria and interest rates (which depends on regulatory factors mostly).
Edit: this is on top of supply and demand for the houses themselves, of course.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#4The problem with New Zealand seems to be that if you have an education, it is often no where else to use that education than Auckland or Wellington. I have never been to New Zealand, but the problem seems to be very similar to the housing problems we have in Norway. The sub arctic capital city of Oslo, has ridiculously high prices.
Stupid question... is the problem with not enough land (eg. if you want to live in manhattan, you literally have nowhere to build, unless you demolish something else),... or is there enough buildable (physically) land in "near-enough-to-commute" locations, but the government doesn't allow people to build (large enough) housing there?
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#5The problem with New Zealand seems to be that if you have an education, it is often no where else to use that education than Auckland or Wellington. I have never been to New Zealand, but the problem seems to be very similar to the housing problems we have in Norway. The sub arctic capital city of Oslo, has ridiculously high prices.
Not true, I've been in Palmerston North scince getting my degree. There are always high skill Jobs going and not enough people willing to move here.
Our house prices are very high as well.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#6It annoys me when they compare countries and don't consider income tax - you don't pay with pre tax income...
If you earn 150k in High Tax Euro Country you're losing 50% of that. In low tax US state you're closer to 33%. Thats the difference between 75k and 100k.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#7The problem with New Zealand seems to be that if you have an education, it is often no where else to use that education than Auckland or Wellington. I have never been to New Zealand, but the problem seems to be very similar to the housing problems we have in Norway. The sub arctic capital city of Oslo, has ridiculously high prices.
Stupid question... is the problem with not enough land (eg. if you want to live in manhattan, you literally have nowhere to build, unless you demolish something else),... or is there enough buildable (physically) land in "near-enough-to-commute" locations, but the government doesn't allow people to build (large enough) housing there?
There's a lot of land. New Zealand is about the 2/3rds the size of California. It just has to do with lack of development. About the same size if you include the habitable land / non desert.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#8The problem with New Zealand seems to be that if you have an education, it is often no where else to use that education than Auckland or Wellington. I have never been to New Zealand, but the problem seems to be very similar to the housing problems we have in Norway. The sub arctic capital city of Oslo, has ridiculously high prices.
Stupid question... is the problem with not enough land (eg. if you want to live in manhattan, you literally have nowhere to build, unless you demolish something else),... or is there enough buildable (physically) land in "near-enough-to-commute" locations, but the government doesn't allow people to build (large enough) housing there?
New Zealand has lots of land available. Zoning can be an issue. That said we have very low density housing.
I think compliance costs and times don't help. Neither does our building code. We should allow the use of materials that have been approved in more advanced countries like Germany.
The real cause has been low interest rates. People borrow as much as they can. At sub 2% rates they can borrow a lot and are pushing prices up.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#9It annoys me when they compare countries and don't consider income tax - you don't pay with pre tax income... If you earn 150k in High Tax Euro Country you're losing 50% of that. In low tax US state you're closer to 33%. Thats the difference between 75k and 100k.
IIRC we pay 33% after 70k NZD ish. Usually people opt into KiwiSaver (3~6%) and fair bit also goes out into paying their student loan.
Re: Average home prices in New Zealand reaches 8.8 times average household income
#10It annoys me when they compare countries and don't consider income tax - you don't pay with pre tax income... If you earn 150k in High Tax Euro Country you're losing 50% of that. In low tax US state you're closer to 33%. Thats the difference between 75k and 100k.
But then you also have to consider what services are included in the tax that the lower tax rate might have to pay out of pocket.