State govts, sure. But Howard wasnt blameless on
that, particularly because of very low interest rates.
Sir John Howard <sirjohnhoward@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> How to plan for a fiasco
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23576957-7583,00.html
> FOR more than 50 years the average Australian was
> able to buy their first home on the average wage.
They still can.
> Traditionally, the median house price was about
> three times the median household income.
Lie with quite a bit of that 50 years.
> Today, in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, the median
> house price is more than six times the median income;
> in Sydney and Perth, it is more than eight times.
And its still quite feasible to buy a house.
> In 2006 former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Ian Macfarlane asked:
> "Why has the price of an entry-level new home gone up as much as it has?
Essentially because the land prices has increased dramatically because
state
govts have loaded up the price of land with massive increased services
charges
and because hordes are stupid enough to buy massive houses the likes of
which
they would never have done in the past, and very low interest rates
allowed that.
> Why is it not like it was in 1951 when my parents moved to East
Bentleigh,
> which was the fringe of Melbourne at that stage, and were able to buy a
> block of land very cheaply and put a house on it very cheaply?
I did the same thing 20 years after that.
> I think it is pretty apparent now that reluctance to release new land,
That wasnt true of every area.
> plus the new approach whereby the purchaser has to pay for all the
services
> up-front - the sewerage, the roads, the footpaths and all that sort of
stuff
And plenty of other stuff too.
And labor wasnt even in power for much of that 50 years too.
> - has enormously increased the price of the new, entry-level home."
Dont forget that the size of the first house has increased out of sight
too.
Whereas plenty in the past had bought a unit first and a full
house later, hordes of kids only ever bought a house too.
> Until the 1970s, land was abundant and affordable, and the
> development of new suburbs was largely left to the private sector.
Thats wrong. Plenty of Housing Commission houses
were available for purchase by their renters too.
> Our pre-'70s leafy suburbs of large allotments and wide streets
> are an enduring testimony to the private sector approach.
> [This was during the golden era of Coalition government.]
It was also the ****lam and Borked/Cheating era too.
> Enter state and territory government land management agencies
> which, since their inception, have been responsible for astronomical
> rises in land prices, leading to astronomical mortgage costs.
Nope, still affordable, essentially because of much lower
interest rates after Cheating had been given the bums rush.
> This escalation in land prices, in turn, has
> pushed up the cost of rental accommodation,
Nope, most rental accommodation was on prior much cheaper land.
> road widening and key infrastructure projects,
That had very minor effect.
> establi****ng schools, community centres and health services, and so on.
And **** all due to that.
> [Can you say labour was responsible for doing this,
Nope, much of it was done by the coalition.
> FlangesBum? Of course you can. But you'll deny it anyway, won't you?]
You in spades.
> State and territory governments were spurred on by an
> urban planning cheer squad obsessed with curbing the
> size of our cities and pu****ng a policy of urban consolidation.
That had been going on extensively right thru those 50 years
and avoided much of the massive increase in land values.
> The case for urban consolidation was that it was good for the
> environment, stemmed the loss of agricultural land, encouraged
> people on to public trans****t, saved water, led to a reduction in
> car use and saved on infrastructure costs for government.
And that was all true.
> None of this is true.
Wrong.
> By promoting urban consolidation while demonising growth,
That last didnt happen.
> planners have inflicted enormous damage on the economy and society,
> and politicians and public servants should stop listening to them.
Mindlessly silly.
> [Hear that, FlangesBum? Its ****s like you who have ruined things!]
How odd that much of that was done by the coalition, fool.
> The economic consequences have been as profound as they
> have been damaging. The capital structure of our economy
> has been distorted to the tune of many hundreds of billions
> of dollars and getting it back into alignment will take time.
Not even possible and there is no 'alignment' anyway.
> California, birthplace of the sub-prime mortgage industry, is paying the
> highest price of any US state as the housing meltdown there persists.
Irrelevant to what has happened here.
> By the end of the year, property values in that
> state alone will have fallen by $US600 billion.
And we wont see anything like that here.
> California also has one of the strictest urban planning regimes in the
world.
> It and Florida, another highly regulated urban planning regime, account
for
> about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of all sub-prime losses in the US.
Irrelevant to what has happened here.
> Foreclosure losses, however, are significantly lower in
> low urban planning states such as Texas and Georgia.
Just because those states are relative economic duds.
> Like most epidemics, the US sub-prime mortgage housing crisis
> can be traced back to this one source: urban planning laws.
Mindlessly silly.
> The credit crisis is the direct result of unprecedented
> house price inflation caused by urban planning policies.
Nope, due to very low interest rates, stupid.
> [****ing stupid leftie loons stick it to us again!]
Pity that the very low interest rates are nothing to do with lefty loons.
> In Australia, the housing affordability problem, mortgage
> stress and the rental crisis are all caused by the same thing.
Nope.
> Bob Day is the former national president of the Housing Industry
Association.
And a fool that hasnt got a ****ing clue.
> This is an edited version of speech he gave to the Adam Smith Club.
That fool that hasnt got a ****ing clue.
> -----------------------------------
> Let's see FlangesBum and the lefties squirm their way out of this one!
Nothing to squirm out of, he's just plain wrong.
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