From Domainfax:
From a ballooning housing market that has locked homebuyers out, to the cost of living day to day life, for many Australians, the state of things is untenable. According to Bankwest’s First Time Buyer report for 2017, an average of 6 years is needed for first time buyers in New South Wales to come up with a 20 per cent deposit, and only 8.1 per cent of the state’s residents are able to break into the market. In Sydney, where the price of a deposit on a median priced home sits at a staggering $215,133, it will take 8.2 years to come up with the necessary funds. House prices are rising while wages stagger further behind, leaving Australian households— established and otherwise—with immense hurdles and little recourse.
According to a recent report, Australian households are finding it a challenge to eat on a regular basis, with data showing that “1.5 million families have skipped a meal in order to feed their children first”. A recent Foodbank study uncovered that 652,000 Australians are receiving food assistance every month, with 27 per cent of them being children—in the last 12 months alone there has been a 10 per cent surge in the number of individuals seeking food relief from charities.
Foodbank, which serves as Australia’s leading hunger relief organisation, disclosed that even working Australians are at risk of food insecurity, and that the high cost of living is the central motivating factor behind the need for food assistance. The Foodbank study reveals that “over the past five years, earnings have not kept pace with growth in rental prices”, and the share of households that pay 30 per cent or more of their income in rent has grown from 10.4 per cent to 11.5 per cent over these same years. “Almost two in five (38 per cent) of those who have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months have been unable to buy food because of their rent or mortgage payments.”
Who needs food when you can eat debt.
