5 days ago
Single satellite image showing suburbs now - compared with the 1990s - proves the great Australian dream has been shattered. MATT JONES reports
A simple satellite image of Sydney 's western suburbs sums up what the average Aussie family has lost in the past three decades.
The picture shows two suburbs, Cranebrook and Jordan Springs, separated by the Northern Road - and 30 years of history.
On the older Cranebrook side, nice-sized homes were built in the 1980s and 1990s on 600-plus square metre blocks. They boast big yards for the kids to run around in, and, sometimes, swimming pools.
On the newer Jordan Springs side, it's tiny homes squashed in next to each other like sardines.
You have to zoom in on Google Earth to see a small strip of grass in each backyard; homes are separated by just inches, and you can't even park two cars side-by-side in the driveway.
Where would you want to raise a family?
Due to the cost of property, it's almost impossible to achieve the great Australian dream of owning your own house nowadays.
But if you're lucky enough to buy your own house in a new suburb, it's still a grim situation compared to what Australia once built last century.
In the 1980s and 1990s many families were able to live in a four-bedroom home with two bathrooms, two living areas, a double car garage and front and back yards big enough to play in.
And all that was, often, achieved on one parent's average wage. I know this is a fact because that's how I, and everyone I knew, grew up in western Sydney.
Not many households earned more than $70,000 a year in the 1990s but we still had plenty to show for it.
But 25 years later in Australia – that's all gone now.
In my household, dad went to work six days a week and my two brothers and I were raised at home by mum while he was away.
Now, both parents must work fulltime to buy a home, or rent, and the kids get sent off to daycare to be raised by virtual strangers.
How did we get to that awful situation in a couple of decades?
'Did anyone see all this coming? It's a good question,' Peter Drennan, director at research and data insights company told Daily Mail Australia.
'You need to look back to last century when conditions were easier and when one income was enough.
'I moved regionally, away from Sydney, to buy a house like they used to make them.'
From the end of World War II to 2000, Aussie families didn't have to give up backyards for community playgrounds and living in strata complexes.
In the late 1960s, more than 70 per cent of Australian households owned their home.
And they were better homes, on a quarter-acre block, surrounded by a garden, with a Hills Hoist and a barbecue out back.
Some even had pools. In the new suburbs today you can't even fit a hot tub in the backyard.
Every time I drive through a newly built Sydney suburb like Jordan Springs I just think about how good '80s and '90s living was.
The way we've constructed our 'new' suburbs for the current and next generation to live in is depressing.
Sure, technological advances have made some things easier and more convenient but I'm glad I grew up with the phone attached to the wall rather than in my pocket.
'That's not something that's mentioned a lot when they do comparative studies, that a home 40 years ago is different to one now in terms of the size of the land and the build quality,' Mr Drennan said.
'Houses now are made to be as cheap as possible because the costs of producing everything has gone up which means the quality of the house isn't what it used to be.'
According to analysis from since 1975 the average home price in Australia's capital cities rose by a stunning 3,435 per cent.
In that time average fulltime wages increased by just 1,183 per cent.
In Sydney the median home price increased from just $34,000 in 1975 to $1,627,625 in 2024 – a price-to-income ratio that has nearly quadrupled.
data recently revealed that mortgage repayments in Sydney now require 143 per cent of the national median monthly wage - which was up from just 44 per cent five decades ago.
In Brisbane house prices climbed by 3,801 per cent, increasing the price-to-wage ratio from four times in 1975 to 11 times today.
It means the city's monthly mortgage repayment now consumes 81 per cent of the average wage, compared to 31 per cent in 1975.
It's worse in Melbourne with mortgage payments taking up 91 per cent of monthly wages.
Only half of the housing market was affordable to service a loan in September 2024 for a household with a relatively high gross income of about $172,000 per annum.
The facts and figures show just how easy the Baby Boomers had it.
'I've gone through the numbers and it was much easier for the Baby Boomers even if they say it wasn't,' Mr Drennan said.
'They may have had high interest rates for a few years but that doesn't mean it was harder.
'Baby Boomers bought homes when prices were just four to five times the median wage, while today's families are paying double to triple that.'
Things are very different to what they were at the turn of the century, so what will buying a home and the family environment look like in another 25 years' time?
'There needs to be a fundamental change that's going to impact the change in house prices and, currently, there's nothing,' Mr Drennan said.
'It could happen, but something needs to change, whether it's a government change or something that's unknown at the moment. There's nothing that's being done right now to change things.'
That just makes me want to go out to the backyard of the old family home and hug the Hills Hoist, maybe even swing around on it again.
