A voice from Generation Y

[pahoffm]

Found this in The Age today.
To me, and I have expressed this before, this is one of Australia's primary problems that will have to be dealt with.
Even one of Australia's richest - Rupert Murdoch - believes that creating opportunity for our young and immigrant citizens is one of Australia's biggest challenges.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/sick-and-tired-of-chasing-dreams-of-finding-a-home-20130404-2h9i4.html

Sick and tired of chasing dreams of finding a home
Tom Whitty

Frustrated, outraged and saddened: Generation Y is blaming baby boomers for their housing market woes.

'I'm tired of the weekends spent travelling from one underquoted property to the next, only to be left feeling like and idiot when an auction opens above what would have been our final limit.'
Oh man, I'm tired. I'm tired of the endless emails from my ever-optimistic girlfriend. The ones with links to real estate listings of rundown, two-bedroom, inner-city dives that neither of us really want to live in and, together, we can't actually afford.

I'm tired of the weekends spent travelling from one underquoted property to the next, only to be left feeling like an idiot when an auction opens above what would have been our final limit. I'm tired of the car trips back to our rented home, with my hopeful girlfriend talking about how the next property might be the one where we can raise some kids together.

I'm tired of explaining to my peers how negative gearing works, and then explaining why allowing investors to speculate on the housing market is to the detriment of our generation. I'm tired of the politicians who have consistently avoided addressing Australia's housing affordability issue over the past decade.

I'm frustrated by the affordability studies commissioned by the government that recommend an adjustment or cessation of negative gearing, only for the same politicians who commissioned the report to ignore these recommendations.

I'm bemused by the existence of the Foreign Investment Review Board, and the government's argument that ''foreign investment in residential real estate should increase Australia's housing stock''. I understand our politicians' motivation for not wanting to improve affordability, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept.

On the one hand, you have young first home buyers who are somewhat naive, attempting to enter the housing market with huge mortgages without questioning why owning a modest home is near impossible in this city. On the other, you have an ageing population that needs to retire. If the value of their biggest asset goes up when they sell it to downsize, they have more dollars to fund their retirement.

These baby boomers are also likely to be investors, and taking away the tax breaks that come along with speculating on the housing market would inevitably lead to backlash on election day. You have to ask, if those being duped are too naive to complain, and those profiteering are too valuable to upset, is housing affordability a problem for our politicians, or a gift?

I'm tired of the subsequent lack of enforcement of regulation in the real estate industry. I'm tired of the sharks and the spruikers and the snake oil salesmen. I'm tired of the media coverage of this issue that consistently goes to these same people for ''expert comment'', and I'm sick of reading about how the market is about to ''pick up'' and that ''now is the time to buy''.

I'm outraged when I read the occasional report that goes so far as to make the argument that those of us that belong to Generation Y (the renting generation) are too greedy and lazy to know what's good for us. The irony of such a statement is not lost on me.

I'm saddened that both my girlfriend and I will have no choice but to work well into our 30s so we can squirrel together a deposit for that two-bedroom dive she's so sure is just around the corner.

I'm saddened we are being made to delay starting a family, when it's all she wants. And I'm saddened that so many people who are approaching retirement will react to this with a ''cry me a river'' statement, when they know full well they never had it this tough.

I'm tired, and I want to rest my head on a pillow on a bed in a home my optimistic girlfriend and I can call our own.

I'm tired. And we haven't even had kids yet.

Tom Whitty is a TV producer and freelance writer.

@twhittyer

 

[Coburgtiger]

Cry me a river.

Granted, I'm sick of the "Lazy Generation Y" tag as well, especially from a generation that experienced free tertiary education and comparatively marginal houseprices. But it's the way it is. If you have to rent, you have to rent. If you want to buy, expect longer travel times, cause you're gonna have to buy outside the city. Suck it up.

 

[U2Tigers]

Another case of gen Y's blaming everyone else for their woes.

They just expect everything done for them.

No sympathy from me.

 

[bullus_hit]

I read that article and have to say that I agree with most of the writer's gripes. I'm not from his generation but Gen Y cop an awful lot of backhanders from the media and many of the well-to-do boomers who have more money and assets than they can handle.

My advice? Forget about the Great Australian Nightmare, there's more to life than being lumbered with a 30 year mortgage, there's also other ways and means to plan for the future. Owning a house isn't the be-all-end-all, and if you ask me, property prices are ridiculously over inflated, all of which spells major trouble if the economy goes tits up (which it inevitably will at some stage).

 

[tigergollywog]

cry me a river

i bet the 2 bed unaffordable dive is in fitzroy. Most baby boomers started in some *smile* arsed BV in the burbs. They didnt spend their 20's travelling, they spent it working. Poor fella has to delay a family cause he hasnt got a terrace in carlton. diddums. my boomer folks had 2 kids before they had a house and before most gen y'ers had taken their first eccy in some crappy london club.

Soft.

 

[Azza]

Increasing populations = cheap housing increasingly further out. Can't do much about that.

I sometimes wonder about the lifestyles of the people complaining about affording a deposit. My ex-wife and I bought our first house when we were in our late twenties/early thirties in then very unpopular Forest Hill. We'd both worked part time jobs for cash at uni. We made do with 20 year-old bombs for cars (in fact I didn't buy a brand new car until my 40s). We didn't have expensive holidays. We had no debt apart from our mortgage.

Not saying it's not hard, but I do wonder if trying to live-up to an unrealistic lifestyle image is part of the gen y problem.

 

[tigergollywog]

AND my baby boomer dad used to sweep the dancehall on sunday mornings so he could collect the roaches and make himself a pouch of tobacco for the week ld

I bet the toughest sacrifice young Tom had to make was he took Steinlager to a party once instead of Stella.

Surprised hes not living with his stooge BB parents to 'save for a deposit' :rofl

 

[Coburgtiger]

I have to stick up for my generation a little here. Financially, it is much more difficult for the current Generation to get a start on life than it has been before.

They didnt spend their 20's travelling, they spent it working.
Soft.

The biggest problem is the current difficulty there is in actually coming out of school into a job. A lot of Gen Y's come out wanting to work, but it's getting pretty hard just to find anything. The thing is, you get geared all through high school to do uni, start a career, whatever, bust your arse getting the higher and higher marks require to get into uni, then bust your arse uni to get a degree that is basically worth less than the paper it's written on. So many people at my age bracket come out of their course, find that it's impossible to get a job with just an undergraduate degree now, find that they're now too old to be employable at somewhere like maccas (where they can hire 15 year olds to do the same work), and really legitimately struggle. And even, such as I did, when you finally work your way through a couple of crappy jobs to find a good one, the indexation on your HECS fee's has put your debt up through the roof.

Gen X and above like to say here, "But HECS isn't really a debt, it disappears when you die and has low interest."

HECs, last year, was taking about 200 dollars a fortnight out of my wage, which makes a huge impact when you're trying to pay rent, bills, food etc starting from scratch. But at least it's getting paid off... until you get the letter at the end of the year telling you, although the interest on your HECS debt hasn't increased anything much, we've indexed your debt according to current economic figures, and now it's about the same as it was at the start of the *smile*ing year.

Although I think the above article is a bit priveledged, and the author's carrying on about things he can really deal with or do without (that cushy carlton terrace comes to mind), it is getting more and more difficult to get started. Haven't even mentioned how high house prices are nowadays relative to average wage.

 

[tigertim]

*smile* he can't afford a house in Melbourne! Plenty of affordable housing in Frankston, Cranbourne, Carrum Downs, Officer, Pakenham, Melton.....

Oh, but Tom wants affordability in Richmond, Carlton or some other trendy inner suburb! Stop ya whingeing boy and re-assess YOUR affordability!

 

[tigergollywog]

I have to stick up for my generation a little here. Financially, it is much more difficult for the current Generation to get a start on life than it has been before.

The biggest problem is the current difficulty there is in actually coming out of school into a job. A lot of Gen Y's come out wanting to work, but it's getting pretty hard just to find anything. The thing is, you get geared all through high school to do uni, start a career, whatever, bust your arse getting the higher and higher marks require to get into uni, then bust your arse uni to get a degree that is basically worth less than the paper it's written on. So many people at my age bracket come out of their course, find that it's impossible to get a job with just an undergraduate degree now, find that they're now too old to be employable at somewhere like maccas (where they can hire 15 year olds to do the same work), and really legitimately struggle. And even, such as I did, when you finally work your way through a couple of crappy jobs to find a good one, the indexation on your HECS fee's has put your debt up through the roof.

Gen X and above like to say here, "But HECS isn't really a debt, it disappears when you die and has low interest."

HECs, last year, was taking about 200 dollars a fortnight out of my wage, which makes a huge impact when you're trying to pay rent, bills, food etc starting from scratch. But at least it's getting paid off... until you get the letter at the end of the year telling you, although the interest on your HECS debt hasn't increased anything much, we've indexed your debt according to current economic figures, and now it's about the same as it was at the start of the *smile*ing year.

Although I think the above article is a bit priveledged, and the author's carrying on about things he can really deal with or do without (that cushy carlton terrace comes to mind), it is getting more and more difficult to get started. Haven't even mentioned how high house prices are nowadays relative to average wage.

sure CT, house prices are ridiculous. But when the BB's where raising a family, other stuff (groceries and clothes) were expensive. An overseas holiday in the 70's was pretty rare. BB's also worked the same job for 50 years. A misery I cant comprehend. I'd want a couple of beach houses if I'd hired out 16250 days of my life to the commonwealth bank. The point being, every gen has its struggles.

Im X and ive had a dream run. No complaints whatsoever. the early 90's job market was tough, so I went and kicked *smile* in WA for a few years. after that, we had a real estate tsunami that wasnt that hard to paddle onto. What's been the downside of Gen X? hard to say. We had to live through ham steaks and pineapple. I think Gen X blokes have also copped a veritable hiding from the missuses.

If you are paying $200 a week HECS, means your earning pretty good dough doesnt it?

 

[Coburgtiger]

HECS is weird, and I'm not sure how they work it out, but it goes from not paying it at all under a certain income threshold, to paying quite a steep percentage of your weekly wage as soon as your cross that threshold. I'm not sure where that threshold is, but it's somewhere around the 50 grand a year mark, and I was just on it.

I understand that each generation has it's struggles. Just my point in fact. BB's are happy to point out how Gen Y's aren't doing the same things they did, so they shouldn't complain. They should work hard, knuckle down, etc.

But a whole generation isn't just working less. It's too simplistic to say an entire group of people suddenly don't have the drive to be part of society. Most young people actively want to work hard.

Perhaps we're staying at home longer as a generation because it's logistically impossible not to. Perhaps we're not working one job our whole lives because the job market no longer accomodates for that. Job security has become a rather tenuous concept in almost any position, especially for people starting out. Let alone the new and very specific demands of a highly networked society.

 

[tigergollywog]

HECS is weird, and I'm not sure how they work it out, but it goes from not paying it at all under a certain income threshold, to paying quite a steep percentage of your weekly wage as soon as your cross that threshold. I'm not sure where that threshold is, but it's somewhere around the 50 grand a year mark, and I was just on it.

I understand that each generation has it's struggles. Just my point in fact. BB's are happy to point out how Gen Y's aren't doing the same things they did, so they shouldn't complain. They should work hard, knuckle down, etc.

But a whole generation isn't just working less. It's too simplistic to say an entire group of people suddenly don't have the drive to be part of society. Most young people actively want to work hard.

Perhaps we're staying at home longer as a generation because it's logistically impossible not to. Perhaps we're not working one job our whole lives because the job market no longer accomodates for that. Job security has become a rather tenuous concept in almost any position, especially for people starting out. Let alone the new and very specific demands of a highly networked society.

fair enough. I wouldnt want to be Y. Z will be even tougher I reckon.

 

[Coburgtiger]

fair enough. I wouldnt want to be Y. Z will be even tougher I reckon.

Probably says something of my pessimism, but I can see it getting tougher for every generation from now onwards.

Lets hope we see a couple of tiger premierships to balance it out.

 

[tigergollywog]

Probably says something of my pessimism, but I can see it getting tougher for every generation from now onwards.

Lets hope we see a couple of tiger premierships to balance it out.

Im an acute optimist and i think

1. we will see some tiger flags in the near future and

2. Things have bottomed out economically and socially

Bob Geldoff was talking the other night in a cracking interview on lateline about freud, darwin and marx framing and guiding generations through the 20th century. He reckoned these types havnt revealed themselves yet, but they will come and theylle give 21st century generations some guidance. I agree and I think these revolutionary thinkers will lead us away from complexity, speed, information and $ and to a quieter place of community, family, simplicity and Trent Cotchin.

 

[Rosy]

When I was uni age my parents didn't only have to work to provide for the family and buy a house, they also had to have the money to pay up front if their kids went to uni. No such thing as HECs. We didn't travel the world on gap years. We didn't have flash cars and every conceivable bit of modern technology. A communal black and white telly and one landline phone. Hard to take the article seriously when they are looking to buy inner city 2 br places. I question your priorities Tom. House ownership, inner city or not, isn't a pre-requisite to having kids.

When we built our house we were owner builders and subcontracted things we couldn't do ourselves. We only did what we could afford then had a break while we earned more money. I lived in a shed in a caravan,sans electricity, water or sanitation when I had my first baby. No baby bonus to rely on. We chose to build in a location we could afford. We lived for a couple of years with painted concrete floors cos we couldn't afford coverings. Our furniture was from the op shop and friends cast offs. We didn't have telly.

Of course it's not easy for kids to buy their own homes. It is achievable if they're willing to do some careful planning and maybe adjust their expectations and priorities. Plenty of kids own homes. If inner city homes have inflated prices due to baby boomers negative gearing then go elsewhere.

It would be far more productive for people to concentrate on their own situation rather than blaming previous generations. I'm sure plenty of baby boomers did it hard in their time too. I know I did and I wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[taztiger4]

When I was uni age my parents didn't only have to work to provide for the family and buy a house, they also had to have the money to pay up front if their kids went to uni. No such thing as HECs. We didn't travel the world on gap years. We didn't have flash cars and every conceivable bit of modern technology. A communal black and white telly and one landline phone. Hard to take the article seriously when they are looking to buy inner city 2 br places. I question your priorities Tom. House ownership, inner city or not, isn't a pre-requisite to having kids.

When we built our house we were owner builders and subcontracted things we couldn't do ourselves. We only did what we could afford then had a break while we earned more money. I lived in a shed in a caravan,sans electricity, water or sanitation when I had my first baby. No baby bonus to rely on. We chose to build in a location we could afford. We lived for a couple of years with painted concrete floors cos we couldn't afford coverings. Our furniture was from the op shop and friends cast offs. We didn't have telly.

Of course it's not easy for kids to buy their own homes. It is achievable if they're willing to do some careful planning and maybe adjust their expectations and priorities. Plenty of kids own homes. If inner city homes have inflated prices due to baby boomers negative gearing then go elsewhere.

It would be far more productive for people to concentrate on their own situation rather than blaming previous generations. I'm sure plenty of baby boomers did it hard in their time too. I know I did and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Here bloody here Rosy, well put

 

[Wildcat]

Its easily doable. I brought 6 years ago at age 27. I lived well within my means for the years before that. I had plenty of fun but bills and living were paid before any money was used elsewhere. I never had a credit card and still don't to this day. Had an old panel van which served me well. Worked full time labouring and such around my uni hours. Didn't sleep much but you get to do that later in life so dad tells me. I had a little help with the deposit but also got in at the right time - not in the areas i had rented, moved over into the west. Got a lucky buy as owner wanted 30days and no auction. Lived tough the first few years to make sure i could do it and now things are quite manageable. Im not married and no kids but feel well prepared for the next phase of life. Things may change - they always do. But if you have a goal .. you just need to work for it. And maybe one day ill move back across the bridge but then i really like it where i am after never living there previously.

I listen to a lot of Gen Y'ers and their whinging, some i understand .. the rest i just see as "they don't want to do the hard yards to get the end goal" My younger brother is 20 and feels the world owes him and he knows the best way to do everything and his boss is an idiot and wrong. Hard to talk that mentality out of him. I think he needs to spend a long time on a shovel or washing dishes for peanuts to appreciate what working hard does. And that his boss worked hard to get where he was in business and is not about to start giving a 20 year the world just because he thinks he knows better. Sometimes better to keep your yap shut and learn. Then apply what you observe and want to take forward into your own business or working life.

 

[Tigers of Old]

cry me a river

i bet the 2 bed unaffordable dive is in fitzroy. Most baby boomers started in some sh!t arsed BV in the burbs. They didnt spend their 20's travelling, they spent it working. Poor fella has to delay a family cause he hasnt got a terrace in carlton. diddums. my boomer folks had 2 kids before they had a house and before most gen y'ers had taken their first eccy in some crappy london club.

Soft.

Couldn't agree more. Gen Y are are growing up and want to have kids. Now they're realising that all the money that they frittered away in their 20s might have been better used on saving for a house deposit. You want to blame the Boomers for anything it's that they spoiled their children.
I hate tarring all with the same brush but their sense of entitlement never ceases to amaze me.

 

[tigersnake]

Yeah its hard to be sympathetic. Thing, a whole lot of stuff is now normalised, and for young people to give those things up is not even on the radar, overseas trips, a decent car, a mobile phone and regular restuarants and cool bars where the beers are $7 each during happy hour. I know its a cliche, but when I bought my first house, (which people actually laughed at, including my parents, at what a dump it was), I worked long hours, drank 4L casks, never went to restuarants, drove a clapped out Datsun 120Y, (Amazed I survived that car's suspension actually). It was a completely different mindset. I think it was down to the fact credit was hard to get, home loans, any loan, was hard to get.

 

[Tigers of Old]

It's been hard to find a job for the past 20 years but you do take anything initially and work your way up from the bottom.
Again hate to make sweeping statements but this is/was a foreign concept for many Gen Ys to comprehend.
Sure a lot of Gen Ys do work hard and perhaps this culture of entitlement is now changing a little but not long ago they just expected doors to open up for them and were pretty fussy about what it is that they're prepared to do. Also many who did get their foot in the door expected promotion so quickly it made my head spin. If they didn't get what they wanted they'd complain to HR or just quit and try somewhere else that would give them what they want.
Fortunately I do think that reality is biting a little and they're starting to knuckle down more now but it's hard to change a culture.