Danger for first-home buyers
Anyone who has ever borrowed money to buy a car knows the initial excitement. You take delivery and you feel you could drive forever. It’s exhilarating, almost intoxicating. But in our drunken desire for possessions it is easy to forget the debt hangover that follows. Within a few months, the glamour of the purchase is replaced by the grind of the payments. Delight turns to depression. And so too with home-buying. In the excitement of getting what you want, it’s hard to see any danger ahead. This is especially true if – as is happening at the moment – the people who make money when you buy, the real estate agents, are urging you to buy, patting you on the back and saying “You’ll be right.” As any salesperson knows, it is easy to sell someone something they want. Everyone wants a nice home and every real estate agent wants to sell homes. And so, when the Reserve Bank issues a warning to homebuyers to be careful about overcommitting themselves, the real estate industry is quick