Rendezvous house hunting

So I am going to take a plunge myself, and join the
housing bandwagon, soon. Not sure if this is in line with
the 'Australian Dream', but after buying my car similarly
on a hefty loan, I am sure this is definitely an 'Australian
bug' that you have to contract.

After living in Sydney for two years, I am finally
looking to buy a house. Years of renting and living in
shared apartments with dirty flatmates and putting up
with their tantrums has finally got a visible light at
the end of the tunnel.

The usual place to start is online, there are a couple
of very good sites for the purpose, realestate.com.au
and domain.com.au . These sites list the advertised
properties in all suburbs in Australia, prices,
pictures and so forth. so rather than having to go to
the realestate office you can select the properties you
want and go for inspection as metioned in the site or
talk to them on phone.I find it quite convenient,
sitting home you can browse and move around house
hunting.

The costs of renting is about 260 dollars a week for a
two bedroom unit in sydney. With the loan for buying a
new house, that could be about a half of weekly
mortgage. So in a way, it does justify that you buy,
rather than rent. But the problem is you end up paying
three times more at the end when you mortgate, at the
current rates ( my bank gave me 7.37 before, now its
gone up to 7.62, thanks to latest rises, and awaiting
another one on christmas).There are some people who
argue you are better off renting till the end.

I looked around some affordable suburbs in the north
west before, in Seven Hills, Kellyville and Dundas. The
houses available are good there, relatively new
townhoses, quiet neighborhood, spacious. But the
problem is the transport. They are just too far away.
They are not well connected by CityRail ( Sydney
trains) and only means would either be slow buses or
driving yourself. And because I work in the City, I
can't drive, because there will be no parking in the
city. Then if you look at places where you can go by
trains, like Westmead, you don't find houses, you only
find units or flats. They are good for investment and
living by yourself, but do not fit in if you are
planning to bring your family here later on. Well,the
normal trade offs of living in big cities.

Distinctly there are no go zones even here, and you
have to listen to real estate agents, friends and
colleagues on the descriptions before you buy. Areas
from Lidcombe and further down west are considered 'bad'
areas, and prices are cheapest there. North Sydney is
exclusive and very highly priced, above a million
dollars for a small house. I have been finding the
prices of two bedroom units in Ashfield, the suburb I
live, is about 280 to 300K. Ashfield is a Chinese
dominated area, very close to the city, only 8 km. But
the problem is all the units are very old ones, at
least 30 years old. I have been to inspections, and
because they all look like they are falling apart, they
have failed to really attract me though it could have
been a good investment rather than go and live in it
myself. I did found a really nice one, refurbished with
large longue and bedrooms, timber floored and so forth,
in Croydon-Ashfield borderline, but the price tag of
400k just set me off.

I received a call from my Bank representative last
evening and I updated him that I would be looking
around when I am back from my holidays, which pushes us
one month behind.

Anyway, here I go, trying to set a foothold in Australia,
trying to 'settle' down a bit. To buy your own house is
a big thing and a life long dream here as well, just like
in Nepal. Because of this, most working Australians are
living lives crushed under heavy loans and mortgages.
Banks never had a better time than this housing boom
going on now. Seems like people here have everything
mortgaged, cars, houses, even vacations and furnitures.
The lust of consumerism is really in full throttle. Is this
capitalism? I wonder, I don't know economics and its
therories that well, but I am not so sure if this madness
of borrowed ownerships has brought people higher sense
of happiness and satisfaction. Having said that, who am
I to be judgemental and blame others, I am doing the same.
Its rather a survival act rather than a sign of properity.
Don't know if the two are related, or one enhances the other.

Some of my friends suggest I rather go back to Melbourne
and live there, they live there. The last time I
was in Melbourne, I really felt its gone a way past
Sydney in looking fabulous. It has always been nicer of
the two, but right now, its just looking really awsome.
But the problem there is lack of good jobs and oppertunities,
spcially if you want a change. And Sydney is much
more 'happening'. So I have decided to keep on living
in sydney for as far as I can see, unless I move to Europe
(which I really want to do given a chance) or back to China
as some of my friends suggest. But for the time being,
lets stick to Sydney.