Real madness set in post-1987 when first mortgage rates were above 21 per cent, but only over 15 years or so.
This is not to say I am describing a world of hurt for Baby Boomers compared to today's young people entering the market, just saying it was challenging but at least we had a hope of accessing the market, even at the bottom end, beginning that slow crawl up the ladder to hopefully better homes and neighbourhoods.
People on working-class incomes back then could still get that basic house. Maybe not an option in many parts of the country right now.
People have always moved houses after breaking the bank getting into that first home. It's just the way of the world. We did, but I remember moving into our present home in 1987 and stating emphatically to anyone who was remotely interested that I am not shifting again. We had made three moves in three months to get this home.
That's it; my next move will be to the home for the bewildered or to the quietest place in town.
Since moving into this shack, an early 1970s architecturally-designed comfort-zone, we have also spent the GDP of a small nation over the years making it what we want. Just a basic family home that is still evolving nearly 50 years after it was first built.
We have seen friends and family move on up the property ladder into beautiful modern homes, some still doing it in retirement. Our home is like a pair of comfy slippers, just right, slightly shabby but proper worn in. It is a treasure trove of our family memories. Our youngest was only 5 when we moved in. He is now 40 with his own family and lovely first home.
The capital gains to be made moving frequently are not to be ignored, but not everyone rocks that way. Many people just want that family home that they can grow old in, raise their kids, treasure their memories and provide a base for the memories of grandchildren visiting the old home that their mum or dad grew up in.
As a boy I had that luxury, spending time in my grandmother's home, built in the late 1920s for £800. Valued today at $1.5 million, it is a working family's home slightly modernised as time has gone by, but still just a nice basic home.
Interestingly, £800 in 1928 equals around $80,000 today. Property inflation has taken care of the balance.
Many say that if one wants to buy a home one will make sacrifices to do so, settle for a home in the commuter belt, a basic home in a modest neighbourhood. Or move town to another place where property prices are cheaper. There are still bargains, but there has to be work and a life worth living there as well.
Many people do that; we did. Settled for living in a distant suburb, relying on public transport and our old bomb to get to work, serve our time whilst building some equity and waiting for finance to become easier to obtain so we could make the step up to a slightly better area, closer to town.
At the end of the day I guess it depends how much someone wants something and what they are willing to sacrifice to get it that makes the difference. But $1 million for an average home is a big gap to bridge.
It is hard to even try to sell the dream of owning a home to young people nowadays. All the old rules just do not apply any more. Many have higher aspirations for what they will settle for as a first home, so automatically price themselves out of the market. We purchased our first home with a deposit equal to my annual salary at the time $5000, about 20 per cent of the purchase price. That was a rule of thumb then. Not so now unless the salary is $250,000 or more.
