I make less than $150K, am in my late 40s, and live in Auckland. My partner and I own our apartment (well, most of it -- we still have just under $20K left on the mortgage). She works part time, and while we don't have a lavish lifestyle we have enough money for a comfortable life. So, yeah, if you're making $150K or more and can't afford to live on your own (even renting) then you have to take a closer look at where your money's going.
I don't mean to engage in whataboutism, but by saying you're above 40, you suggest you may have bought into your mortgage at the much more affordable times in the past. Did you purchase in the last few years?
Purchased around four years ago. Our rate at the time was around 3%; it's gone up in recent years. That said, for the years leading up to that my partner and I were renting (first in Wellington, then in Auckland). We also have a now nine-year-old son and having kids ain't cheap :-) For some of the time, we were on one salary. Still managed a fairly comfortable life even under those circumstances.
Late 40s, so let's say fairly 47 or so. Which means you purchased around 43.
The housing market is broken (and not just in NZ; I'm a Kiwi living in London). In the 90s the outside London average first time buyer age was 29, now it's 33.4 and steadily increasing.
But the real kicker is; how did you get your deposit? Scrimping and saving? Never have house prices been such a high multiple of the average salary. The difference now between the haves and have nots are those whose parents can drop a 30-50kgbp deposit for each of their children and those children who inherit a stake in properties worth around 300-1000kgbp from deceased grandparents.
All of the "news" around properties is through the eyes of home owners and not prospective buyers. There are more people cheering when prices go up and booing when prices go down than vice versa, even when their house is worth many times more than the original price adjusted for inflation.
I had a Kiwi mate stay with me for a holiday recently (also late 40s) and in his mind the high house prices/ridiculous value increase made sense to him because "I pay my rates the whole time I own the house therefore the value should go up". I tried to explain that rates (known as council tax in the UK) were a _service_ just like paying your electricity bill but it just did not compute; he wasn't interested.
> But the real kicker is; how did you get your deposit? Scrimping and saving?
Pretty much -- more saving then scrimping. My parents and my partner's parents didn't help us, mainly because they couldn't. And we didn't expect them to. And, no, we didn't have other benevolent relatives or money magically appearing in our bank accounts. If only ... Also were also able to use some of our KiwiSavers (government retirement savings plan for those of you outside of NZ) to take advantage of the first home buyer's scheme.
Overall, though, for us it was a matter of living modestly, paying our bills, and remembering to pay ourselves. Not that we didn't/don't indulge from time to time -- pay a visit to our favourite local cafes and we take the occasional trip here and there.
I'm sure this all would have been a bit easier if I was making $150K or more annually (or even if my partner was making $20K or so more a year). But we're not unique or special or anything like that. I know several people in a situation like mine who are doing or have done the same thing.
