I agree Radish.

I realised when I was teaching Year 10 students about interest rates last year that rates have been at their current really lowest levels, maybe the lowest in our lifetimes, since the GFC in 2008. Those kids had no memory of higher interest rates, and were nearing the age when they could take out a loan. (Maybe not a home loan yet, but that may not be too far off for some.)

I made a point of saying what I just wrote above quite a few times.

Parents/grandparents, talk to your kids about this stuff. We maths teachers can only do so much!

australian's 'mum and dad' investors and many foreign investors will soon feel the brunt of interest rate hikes, more so than other countries with much more prudent household debt levels. at present, our household debt relative to household disposable income is a staggering 187% - one of the highest in the world.

perth's property prices are plunging, with vacant properties and lower rents. other capital cities have had a glut of unsold units for at least the last five years (possibly more), yet the frantic property development business keeps building more and more. brisbane now resembles a construction site. they are everywhere!

bringing in even more immigrants has not solved our problems. every new person born or coming to live here increases costs as more infrastructure and services are needed to cope with the numbers. and all this at a time of increasing unemployment and increasing automation (ie robots) in many workplaces.

about the only other industry we have in australia is mining. and we allow the big companies to take most of their big profits overseas. we also subsidize much of the infrastructure and give them massive amounts of our water – free. what nice, generous people we are. the royalties we receive are laughable.

WHY HAVE AUSTRALIA'S GOVERNMENTS ALLOWED THE ECONOMY TO BECOME SO UNBALANCED with most private funds invested in unproductive markets such as housing at great expense to productive sectors of the economy? there have been many, many warnings for years. i know – i have been reading them.

here is part of a comment i just read from someone who has lived in many overseas countries (see full comment in the article on the web site below):

“australia is going nowhere. it just feels like being rich due to the housing price gain, but it is just bullshit as all know. this country,,, no technology, expensive service, super expensive housing,,,,,easy going,lazy, people, no engineering,,,

Do you really think you can compete against countries like uk, usa, china,or japan.? Sorry to say but the engineering, technical level in Aus is lower than even Malaysia or Indonesia…”

http://www.whocrashedtheeconomy.com.au/blog/2017/01/australian-banks-placed-on-credit-watch-negative/#comments

graveyard of the mortgage zombies.......our future ghettos.