Sydney parents earning an income of almost $200k a year say buying a home is out of reach

A desperate mom has revealed she can’t afford to buy a house, despite her and her husband’s combined income of $195,000 a year.

Despite her above-average income, the anonymous mother-of-five said entering the real estate market felt “out of reach.”

‘We’ve been trying to improve our position for years, but it still feels so out of reach… we also have two teenagers. I just don’t know how to do this anymore,” she complained.

The 38-year-old explained that she has three children with disabilities who need doctor appointments and specialist help that “eat their hard-earned income.”

She said she and her 40-year-old husband earn $195,000 annually before taxes and savings, as well as paying off $30,000 in debt and a car on contract for four more years.

“Has anyone else felt that homeownership is just way out of reach?” the Sydney woman asked in one after in a popular budget-oriented Facebook group.

But she didn’t get the help she sought.

Instead, people told her to have “more than enough” money to buy a house with her high income.

“Cry me a river, you make $200,000 and don’t get your budget eligible for a house deposit. You need to seriously rethink your lifestyle,” one member joked.

“Maybe instead of buying flash cars and lifestyle, you should set your priorities. If you want to live a house on a budget and want to save. Until your attitude changes, you keep getting the same result,” wrote a second.

“God, I wish I had your problem. I’m on a quarter of that as a single mother, no child support and saving for a house. Perhaps living on one paycheck and saving the other. Remember, what matters is not what you earn, but what you spend. And you obviously spend a lot,” replied a third.

“I make about a quarter of what she gets, I find it hard to feel sorry for someone who struggles on a wage like that,” said another.

Many suggested that the family move from Sydney to a more affordable regional city, but the mother explained why that was not an option.

‘Support for people with disabilities is not great in regional areas. It would negate the benefits if we had to travel for specialist services,” she said.

“We have a few rare cases in the house. Fortunately, we have found a school where (my daughter) actually does well, which in itself is not worth the risk for us.’

However, the criticism kept coming until the mother was forced to hit back at the “judgmental” commentators.

‘Yes, it’s a good salary, which is why I was so disappointed when we were told again that we didn’t meet the criteria for a loan. We’re not living beyond our means, we’re reeling from having stupid loans when our kids were little,” she explained.

She said the family built up debt when they previously lived on one minimum wage and have a “teen with extra needs” who needs regular doctor visits that “take up a large chunk of our hard-earned income.”

“We don’t take many luxury vacations…we have prioritized a reliable vehicle. It needs certain safety features, it’s not a “luxury car”, but it’s not an older model either.

“The credit criteria have tightened, our wages were not the problem, the remaining debt was, they didn’t even look at our expenses.”

The mother said they are not looking for a new flash house, but one in which to house her children as they cannot afford their own rent in Sydney as adults.

“Maybe we have some splurges, sports for ourselves and our kids, specialists that we see privately because the public system doesn’t cover it, a few streaming services,” she said.

“We shouldn’t have to give up everything and given what’s in my splurge budget, it’s not exactly going overboard.”

A worrying number of young Australians have given up on ever owning their own home, a new survey finds.

A Resolve Political Monitor survey published Monday found that 54 percent of middle-income respondents and 63 percent of low-income respondents believe they will never be able to afford a home.

National home and unit prices combined rose 0.6 percent in March to $704,723, CoreLogic data showed.

Median house prices in Sydney rose 1.5 percent to $1,230,581 last month, while Melbourne’s equivalent value rose 0.6 percent to $898,644.

Housing in all five of Australia’s major cities has been deemed “seriously unaffordable” since the turn of the century, according to the 2023 Demographia International Housing Affordability Scheme.

Ten consecutive rate hikes from May 2022 to March 2023 have already made home ownership more difficult, and this was compounded by property prices rising for the first time in 10 months last month.

Since 2005, median house prices in Sydney and Melbourne have increased at 3.5 times inflation and 2.5 times the increase in average weekly wages.

Jim Reed, director of Resolve, said high house prices and rents discouraged young people from entering the real estate market.

“Many young people have simply given up on the dream of owning a home, at least early in their careers, and some even tell me they give up on starting a family because they can’t afford to take care of themselves , just more mouths,’ he said.

Mr. Yardney continued to hope that residents would still be able to afford a home as long as they worked hard to save.

“There’s nothing new about this,” he said.

“I remember after house prices went up from the late 1980s when parents said their kids will never be able to afford a house, and look what’s happened since then.”

Economist Saul Eslake, a longtime critic of Australia’s housing policy, said the situation has gotten so bad it is undermining living standards for generations to come.

“I don’t understand why young people today don’t take to the streets to protest their parents and their grandparents for what they’ve done with the cost of housing in this country,” he said.

An average-skilled Australian who wants a house is now almost locked out of the inner cities or villages near the beach unless they are prepared to live in a flood zone.

Financial Comparison Canstar calculated that someone with an average full-time salary of $94,000 could only borrow $436,000.

Therefore, if the potential home buyer could raise a 20 percent down payment of $109,000, he would only be able to buy a home or unit worth $545,000.

That’s less than half of Sydney’s median home price of $1,217,308, even after falling 14.7 percent in the year to February, CoreLogic data showed.