18 November, 2004

Up in Auckland yesterday talking to tutors about XML and ‘how to make it all work’. I don’t think they cared very much. In the words of one of them “Why bother when you can do all the same sort of things in php?”. Touche. Why bother using CSS when you can use tables, why bother using the web when you can use paper. It was good to catch up with a friend there though.

On another topic, the more people I talk to around my age about houses and the purchasing of houses the more I’m seeing a definite edge of despondency and almost desperation. This is not because we are pathetic whimps when faced with the idea of a mortgage, this is a generation after all who on average has $20,000 each of student debt. I handle thousands of dollars each month in my business, large numbers aren’t a problem but income and perceived value are.House prices are currently so high we can’t even play the game. A bank will lend us a maximum of $180,000 at the moment (and that’s really pushing us) in a market where house prices average around $220,000…um, I was never great at arithmetic but something doesn’t add up there. Real income (taking into account the cost of living) has supposedly gone up about 3-4% over the last 15-20 years while I’m looking at houses that in 2001 where valued at $150,000 now valued at $240,000. Something’s not right there and I am still not sure how a property can increase in value by 60-70% over three years. The other problem here is that if, as I keep being told by old farts, house prices never come down, then we have a generation who will be forced to rent most of their lives.

Is that a problem? On the face of it, no, but people who rent typically don’t get heavily involved in their community, don’t settle down, have kids etc and if rental property prices increase with demand (which they do when more people are renting) then we face the prospect of having a large percentage of your population with no certainty of a home at all. Communities don’t happen without people and there’s a point where the basic human requirements need to be met or we tend to see somewhat antisocial behaviour. Along with issues like global warming, peak oil, rampant consumerism and deficit spending this one requires a big picture view in a society that values immediacy, hedonism and greed. Personally I wonder if we’re not all screwed.