Bubblepedia

This seems like a handy resource: Bubblepedia, for all those discouraged house hunters out there.

What I find fairly astonishing is that despite all the widely available information on the US subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on the global economy, the government, buyers, real estate agents, vendors and banks seem to be rushing at full speed ahead, intent on creating our own little subprime mortgage crisis right here before June 30th. Banks seem to be lending huge sums to people, almost regardless of their income or saving practices. This can't end well.

What's Up With Annandale?

There is something about the priceyness (priciness?) of Annandale that I'm not quite getting. Much of it is under the flight path, and there's no train station.

How about a 1 bedroom terrace for $575,000? That's nearly $600k folks, for a one bedroom tiny workman's cottage, living cheek by jowl with your rich and similarly cramped neighbours. In this market, it will probably go for more. Just a couple of blocks across Parramatta Road, in the unfashionable end, you could get much better value for your money in Stanmore, aircraft noise included, and train station thrown in, just as close to the city... and even then it's far too pricey for my money.

What on earth is wrong with Sydney? This is not New York City people! And I'd like to keep it that way thanks...

Inner West Awash in Purple Flowers

Walking around the various inner west suburbs, getting our bearings, we noticed a profusion of these trees with purple flowers. Almost every house seems to have one! What are these mysterious purple trees?

Panic Buying

Another article about the first home buyer's grant sparking off panic buying:

"It should be called the vendor's grant," he said. "In the outer suburbs of major capital cities the prices went up between $7000 and $14,000 in a 24-hour period immediately after the announcement."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25390502-5013871,00.html

Anecdotally, from February, we were seeing 2 bedroom semi-detached houses for around the 550k mark. 3 bedroom houses were around the 600 - 650k mark. Now in April those 2 bedroom places seem to be getting offers of over 620k, easily, and 3 bedrooms are in the range of 700 - 800k.

What others are saying

The bricks and slaughter article in the SMH sparked off a bit of a discussion here. People who have actually been in the market over the past few months are all seeing the same things - that prices have got way out of control, creating a housing bubble. Meanwhile, around the world, housing prices are dropping considerably to become more affordable. What is wrong with Sydney?

Welcome to Bricks and Slaughter

Welcome to Bricks and Slaughter, a blog dedicated to raising the roof on the insane Sydney property prices for the inner west and surrounding areas.

Thanks ever to the SMH Punsters for our blog title and one of the few articles to highlight the problems we've been seeing on the ground. We keep reading that realtors are telling us now is the time to buy... but is it really? Really?

Over the past 4 months, us lowly first home buyers have been feverishly attending every open house inspection in sight, and keeping track of the auction and private treaty results, only to find houses quickly slipping through our fingers as quickly as they're listed, for mind-boggling sums way over reserve prices, seemingly all just to cash in on a measly $14000 first home owner's grant. Don't people know better than to pay retail?!

As we continue our search, with the first home owner's grant's end nearly in sight, we'll try to keep track of what you'd actually be paying for in a house in our part of the inner west, compared to the prices people are actually paying, in terms of location, land size, renovations, rooms, etc. Hopefully the more information out there, the less panic and confusion there will be and the better for all the rest of us.

This is mainly to help us research and keep notes on houses we might want to buy, but feel free to weigh in on what you kind of information you'd be interested in seeing.