WeegieDave

This is it isn't it....I know people who bought million dollar houses, just average houses really..in 'good' suburbs. Ridiculously overpriced. I doubt they are still worth that now. We've just about paid off our new car (6 years old) and were debating upgrading but decided to just keep it..its paid for and still goes and looks ok! Why saddle ourselves with more unnecessary debt? We paid what we thought our house was 'worth' 5 years ago and that's helped us feel less panicked at the thought of stagnating prices and rising rates....

I always think that the rule for a couple / family is that if there are 2 income earners, your level of debt would still be manageable for a few months should one of you lose your job.

This is it isn't it....I know people who bought million dollar houses, just average houses really..in 'good' suburbs. Ridiculously overpriced. I doubt they are still worth that now. We've just about paid off our new car (6 years old) and were debating upgrading but decided to just keep it..its paid for and still goes and looks ok! Why saddle ourselves with more unnecessary debt? We paid what we thought our house was 'worth' 5 years ago and that's helped us feel less panicked at the thought of stagnating prices and rising rates....

The bank offered me a home loan of $1.1 million based on my salary when I was doing FIFO. The thought of tha amount of debt made me shudder and I knew FIFO wasn't going to last forever nor did I want to do it forever as I hated it so I bought a house that I could afford with just my base salary. Unfortuntely, all too many people bit the bankers hand off take the $1 million plus dollar mortgages and now have no FIFO.

My house will no doubt have dropped in value also but I never bought it to make money and I'll just sit tight for a few years and see what happens. I was there when the crash happened in the UK but your average Aussie between 21 - 40 years old has no idea of what a recession or crash in the economy is. Australia has just been a big isolated bubble for a few years.

The trouble I have seen in Perth is people living above their means.

So many people want to 4x2 house and the Toyota Prado. People are debted up to their eye balls and it's no suprise that Australia now has the highest level of personal debt in the world. Double of America'e levels.

Greece had a massive culture of people living above their means... Look what happened there.

Perth's trouble don't look so bad when you look at what people are paying for (being ripped off for) property in Sydney and Melbourne.

Having experienced the craziness of 2006 not abnormal the original poster would decide to check on conditions for himself. After all reading forums such as this conflicting views must lead to confusion.

Not hard to see the changes though. The big thing that strikes me is the rentals available now.

We had queues in my area until eighteen or so moths ago. I'm talking thirty odd people. Now its down to about four and still places seem to remain on the market a month or six weeks with price reductions.

Sadly house prices although down some 3%+ this year don't really reflect this decline in my area. They still seem to be ramping up the price. Many houses that went for under $400,000 in 2004 now seem to want $1.2 million, after a $250,000 (or thereabouts)refurbishment.

 

As for work, I'd say very competitive. Best know someone to enable a point of entry. This will become ever more important as jobs become scarcer as the mining boom further detracts. We in WA being so closely tied to the resource sector still have a way to go yet before things stabilise. Not great times to be in WA or coming without work or inside help or in an industry that is recession prove.

Around 8500 vacant rental properties in the greater Perth area at the moment. I have a mate who has just moved into the CBD (Hay Street) and the rental agent (a fellow Glaswegian) told him that they cannot fill the properties anymore. There has been a massive exodus of people who worked in the Mining Infrastructure construction boom and the Oil and Gas boom such as Barrow Island and Wheatstone who are all heading to pastures new.

Lets not get confused though. It was never a mining boom. The mines are pumping out more ore than ever. It was a construction boom for new mines infrastrcture and a large part of the employment boom was also Oil and Gas projects on Barrow Island and Wheatstone. The end of the construction boom was always going to have casualties as it was slightly OTT and a lot of businesses started up during the boom but had absolutely no future business sustainability plans. It's almost as if they thought the boom was going to last forever. It is a period of correction. People will lose jobs that are no longer required related to the said industries and the knock on effect in hotels, car hire, plant hire, and general construction suppliers will be felt but it will all level out over the next couple of years and a bit of normaility will return to Perth and WA as a whole and it was probably needed to be fair. The boom created a massive greed culture!

I work in the construction and civil engineering industry in Perth and the work has dried up although the local authorities are still throwing cash about for capital works projects which is keeping me going at the moment. Some big project will be taking off in Perth over the next 18 months so the people that are prepared to dig in hard and not worry about how much they are being paid will do ok I reckon.

Changing times indeed but I look forward to some normality coming back to the state!

Edited to say: I wouldn't fancy being a new immigrant to Perth at the moment though!

As each day passes, I find myself more and more gobsmacked at how awful this government is. I shouldn't be amazed but I am.

 

They are actually beyond a caricature of bad government.

 

Off the top of my head, their credentials after 2 years:

Stopped the mining and carbon tax, yippee. But I'm still waiting for my $550, and emissions have gone up ever since

Stopped the boats (another topic of discussion)

Scrapped all funding for environmental groups and refugee legal support, reduced funding for indigenous and homeless services

Disbanded the Immigration Health Advisory Group

Disbanded the Climate Commission

Refused to spend any money on public transport infrastructure, whilst prioritising roads and threatening the Victorian govt over the East West link

Introduced new laws to imprison whistleblowers, sack public servants who criticise the govt

Done nothing in response to a Greens senator being spyed upon whilst visiting Nauru

Vilified Sarah Hansen Young

Vilified the head of the Australian Human Rights Commission

Introduced metadata retention to spy on EVERY Australian

The most biased speaker in the history of parliament

Introduced TPVs

Introduced a 'wind farm commissioner'

Banned a parliamentary vote on gay marriage, thereby lagging behind even Ireland

Slashed billions from foreign aid

Picked an LNP supporter as Royal Commissioner to crack union heads

 

Any I've missed?

-Poor people don't drive cars

-If you want to buy a hugely overvalued house in a false economy housing market then all Australians were told to 'get a good job'

WA has been in recession for 5 months .. Read the data

That is not factual mate!

On a non Perth note, Brisbane has more building going on than I've seen since arrival early 2012.

Shed load of building going on in Perth at the moment too with some other big infrastructure projects been given the green light.

Sure, the mining has taken a big hit and the ripples can be felt far and wide in WA but other industries outwith mining are still going strong albeit the construction industry has became a lot more competitve at tender stage.

Argos could make a killing over here selling Elizabeth Duke jewellery to the bogans!! They love a big chunky kerb chain or bracelet!

Because

I

Could

I just can't see how Sydney can sustain the propersty prices if they keep rising. It's a false economy inflated by wealthy foreign investors (mostly from Asia it seems).

I can see a lot of young Australians having to leave Sydney due to the unaffordable price of property...It's a rather sad situation for young 'wannabe' first time buyers now and the debt levels being racked up by people desperate to get on the property ladder must be dangerous. There seems to be such a big hype to get on the property ladder in Australia. It is set up for a major crash should Australia hit any significanteconomic woes!

Property prices are actually dropping in Perth due to the end of the mining construction boom.

Whatever for? Don't need alcohol to address any perceived numbness.

Youve been here too long.. You've lost your sense of humour!

It likely won't be for quite some time but with the projected population increases it is planned to happen...

The Beenyup Wastewater Treatment Plant serves Perth’s rapidly developing

northern suburbs from Quinns Beach through to Scarborough and inland

through Dianella and Bayswater to the foothills east of Midland. It is an advanced

secondary treatment plant. Capacity is currently 120 million litres a day but it

will be ultimately developed to treat 200 million litres a day which can serve a

population of 1.1 million people. The treatment process is designed to minimise

environmental, public health and community impacts.

The wastewater is predominantly from household kitchens, bathrooms, toilets and

laundries. Wastewater entering the plant is more than 99 per cent water.

Like other wastewater treatment plants across the state, the Beenyup plant is subject to

regulation and licensing by the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Most of the treated wastewater from the Water Corporation’s metropolitan wastewater

treatment plants is discharged to the ocean, but our preference is to use this valuable

resource. In the longer term, the Water Corporation believes that most of Perth’s wastewater

can be recycled. By 2030 it is estimated that water recycling in Perth will exceed 30 per cent.

The Water Corporation believes that major advances in water recycling can be made

through large-scale recycling schemes such as:

•

Groundwater replenishment, where high quality recycled water is stored in

groundwater for use in drinking water supplies;

•

Recycling to industry; and

•

Providing recycled water to irrigate public parks, garden and for horticulture.

Australia's first groundwater replenishment trial will be located next to the Beenyup

Wastewater Treatment Plant. The trial will involve water from the Beenyup Wastewater

Treatment Plant being treated using ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet

disinfection. To produce high quality water for recylcing. This water will be added to

an underground aquifer, where it will be further filtered by natural processes to safely

replenish groundwater. If this trial proves successful, it may result in more groundwater

being available for Perth’s drinking water supplies.

We already have a water treatment plant near us but the water is only used to supply golf courses, vegetable growers etc - there's no way people will drink recycled human waste. We have a desalination plant at Wonthaggi that cost mega billions and is costing a million dollars a week just to have sitting there just in case we run out of water. So far we haven't had to use a drop of water out of it. And if we do have to use it we will have to build another filthy polluting coal-fired generation plant just to supply its power.

I am old timer who has been here nearly 60 years and have seen the rainfall diminish alarmingly over the last 30 years. Our pond used to be deep enough for our horses to swim in it but for the last 20 years there hasn't been a drop of water in it.

Unfortunately you are incorrect. I was recently at a talk about the future of advanced recycled waste water and we will be drinking it.

So we are all lucky to live where we live? Something in that. The luck comes from being alive first and foremost.

You know what I meant... Go out for a pint!

Perth is a nice city. It suits some peoples lifetyles. I am working on the coast just now and there are loads of people out surfing the waves and on paddle boards etc. Perth is a great place to be for certain types of people. If you want a vibrant buzzing city with great nightlife etc then Perth ain't the place to be. It is a city and all cities have issues, unemployment, drug use, crime, multicultural issues etc etc but when you watch the news and read the papers it makes you realise how lucky we are to live in our city / country of choice whether it be Perth, Melbourne, London, Glasgow etc.

Its different horses for different courses. It's not a utopia but it is a nice place to live. Now less of the bickering people and go out for a pint or something!

You often see dolphins if you go down to the Lucky Shag pub and sit out the back next to the water.

I don't know where they got Perth's projected population growth figures from. Perhaps based on the amount of people coming into Perth during the boom. But there are more people leaving Perth now that moving in with 8000 rental properties lying vacant. Maybe they are all moving to Melbourne?!

It's madness. There should be a ban on immigration to Melbourne and also Adelaide and Perth. We just don't have enough water to supply the projected huge populations. Let anyone who wants to live here go up north where there is plenty of the stuff.

Thats why they are building AWRP's now (Advanced Waste Water Treatment Plants). I was recently involved in the construction of one in Perth.

So within a few years Australia will be drinking receycled sewerage to sustain enough water for everyone.

A recession is due.. No doubt about it. In some ways it might not be a bad thing. Will hopefully scrub out the greed culture that has engrained intself into WA during the boom years and will hopefully bring back some normaility. Everyone wants to charge big bucks for everything in Perth and are still trying to do so despite the changing economy.

Not great for people like me who bought a house just over a year ago during the peak but I'm not planning on moving anytime soon so will hopefully ride it out.

London slang is the worst though..

I'm an "old man" in my 60s and it amuses my daughter when I use terms like "pictures" for movies or "wireless" for radio. I think it's sad that many old terms have died out. I really hate it when young shop assistants address me as "buddy". I know "cobber" has died out but it looks like "mate" will soon be replaced by an Americanism.

It already has... Bro

Thats because they don't have their own identity, their British in their ways but so desperately try to be American

Think they are just a young country being influenced by established western countries but unfortunately they do tend to opt for Americanisms.. I actually hear young Australians speaking with a slight American twang in their accents and use a lot of American sayings. I think the old gruff Aussie of past generations is being filtered out by an American influenced youth.

Films.. The Aussies have a habit of Americanising everything.

Unfortunately those redundancies were likely only the beginning.

Barrow Island finishes soon enough and Wheatstone will wind down in about a year or so.

Yeah, Darren Lyons did it, with Sarah Henderson MP holding me down.

Good lad.. I always knew you'd conform and become a True Blue Aussie.. Good onya!!