Buying still not valid option for double income family

Chris and Gaby Murno and their family as featured in a 2007 Weekend Herald article. Photo / File

North Shore couple Chris and Gaby Munro and their children Joel and Evie have been living in the same rented house for eight years.

Despite the housing slump, they still cannot afford to buy.

Prices have not fallen that much in Auckland and trying to save while raising a family and making ends meet is a never-ending battle for this close-knit family.

In April, 2007, the Munros became the face of disenchanted home hunters, explaining in the Herald how they earned $95,000 a year between them, but could not afford a mortgage even if they cut the family food budget to $200 a week.

Four years later, nothing much has changed, except a more cautious Mrs Munro remembers the backlash from publicity - many readers said the couple needed to save harder if they were serious about buying - and is reluctant to talk.

They are happy in their Sunnynook house where rent has gone from $270 a week eight years ago to about $400 a week. The house was worth $279,000 but today is valued by Auckland Council at $410,000, well out of their financial reach.

"Sunnynook continues to go up in value because of the school zones, and it's near the beaches," said Mrs Munro. "A lot of Asian investors have bought here because it's in the Westlake schools' zones."

The family is not planning to shift but she keeps an eye on the market, only finding "skuzzy" two-bedroom units in their price bracket in the area.

To find an equivalent three-bedroom stand-alone house with a garage and gardens, the Munros would be forced to areas out west such as Te Atatu Peninsula, Swanson or Avondale, where places of similar standard are on the market for about $350,000.

They say it's not that they don't like those areas or the housing - just that the move would mean an enormous upheaval and big sacrifices, finding new communities and shifting jobs.

The renter family is happy and settled although Mrs Munro notices how all their friends own their places, some even with lakeside holiday homes.

The family is continuing to save via Kiwisaver, but advice from a Kiwibank lending specialist was to try living on a much reduced weekly spend to see how they went. Music lessons and sport would just be the start of the sacrifices.