Maybe because the money they're spending on the mortgage is going down the tube when if they walk away and declare bankruptcy, in 7yrs time they can go ahead and start over again with the money they've saved instead of blowing it on an investment that turned out to be dud.

That'd be the only reason I could think of. I don't think it's necessarily a smart one, but I suppose that might be the reasoning.

Interest rates will hit 10% before the end of the year if things keep going the way they are here.

May I ask a question? How many of you have parents that live in the same house they did once they bought their dream home when they were younger? Or how many have parents who lived in the same house for more than 30-40 years?

My father still lives in the 3-bedroom house he and my mother bought in 1983, the first home purchase they made.

On the other hand, in 1989 my mother moved out and bought a house with my stepdad (it was also his second house,) and then left that situation and has now bought a house by herself. The house with my stepdad was the biggest, but none of them were McMansions.

when my mom died in 96 we sold the house she and dad bought in 63-64

my mom will be in her house 30 years this June. wow.

Pop built the first house in '50/'51.
Then while Mom had both hips replaced in '67, he built the second house with no cellar (laundry on the same floor), where Mom still lives.

My mum lived in the house she and my dad bought when they first got married till the day she died. We sold it a couple of years ago. She'd been there over 30 years.

My house was built over 50 years ago. Still have most of it. Mom & Pops home.

To answer the implied second half of the question, my husband and I are currently in our second purchased house, having owned the first one for just under three years. But that was the intention from the beginning--it was a big fixer-upper, and we did almost all of the work ourselves and sold it for 50% more than we paid for it. (At the same time, we made sure we were okay with the neighborhood long-term if it turned out we had to stay there longer than we'd anticipated.) Of course you can never say for sure, but we don't intend to ever move out of this house we're in now.

My parents are in the same house they bought in 1968. They are talking now about putting an addition on it so they can grow old in it. First floor bedroom and bathroom, etc. My dad retires this year.

My wife and I have been in our house for 11 years, and we plan to stay here at least 20 more years. May live here forever.

We're talking about putting an addition on ours, but I'm not sure we have enough $$ to swing it. Have to look into loans/refinancing and see if it's doable without changing our lifestyle or extending the term of the loan too much.

My Dad still lives in the house he and Mom bought in '62(?) for like $5,200. Obviously, they weren't market speculators.

Wow. I bet their yearly property taxes are close to that, at this point.

Well thanks for the answers but I think you all know where I'm coming from. Once people used to save up and buy their first 'home'.
But the trend over the last twenty years is to save up and buy your first 'investment'. And if you are only in it for the investment then you're prone to the investment markets and it's fall outs. In conjunction with that people are building more and more little investment properties and I personally believe that's why we have the 'urban sprawl'. More and more little boxes on the hillside waiting to become slums. Two many investors in the property market and too many people wanting to get rich all at the same time.

lush, I think you could be right except for the fact that very few of these 'little boxes' are unoccupied which posits that they were required anyway.

The other alternative is to build more high rises closer to the city, but in general, the rents in those have traditionally priced most average income earners out of the market. Not to mention Australias fascination with family pets making inner city apartment living simply not feasible.

I think the real reason our urban sprawl is sprawling is our growing population. People need homes to live in and our cities till now have been comparitively small when you consider other capital cities around the world.

Also, times have changed. People are much more mobile and jobs require people to move much more than in previous generations. As John Howard once said, "Australians have never had it so good", and to a point he was right, although I think Johnny might have had his blinkers on at the time. Unfortunately, those good times are proving to be very tough times now, but we all know there's going to be hangover if you party too hard in the first place. (at least, the responsible ones among us do)

little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky...