This editorial from The Sydney Morning Herald looks at how the rise in housing prices in Australia has both short- and long-term negative effects.
"Australia has proved incapable of responding to the crisis in housing affordability. We are trapped like rabbits in a spotlight. The broad dimensions of the problem are well known. House prices boomed 150 per cent in the eight years to 2004, and after the current pause are predicted to rise again in the coming year."
"Many older people in Sydney have been pleased to see the value of their houses increase in the past decade. But with this has come the realisation that their children might never own their own homes, or, if they do, will have to work far harder than any previous generation to do so."
"Many of those who managed to buy a house are struggling to maintain family life as both parents go to work to repay the mortgage. For some, the battle is just too hard."
