Stephen Green hopes to buy a home for his family of four, but that dream has so far proven elusive.
The 38-year-old Melburnian says he and his wife Bronwyn have “pretty good” incomes and have been saving for the better part of a decade, with the last five years being “pretty hardcore savings”.
“The smashed avocado metaphor that was used to describe our generation as kind of overspending, I think is really unfair,” he says.
“Everyone I know who is in the same position as I am kind of does everything they can do to cut their spending.”
For Mr Green, that’s meant very few takeaway coffees or meals, no nights out — although having two kids under five helped with that — and camping holidays rather than flying anywhere.
But last year, when the pandemic presented a brief window of falling house prices, Bronwyn’s beauty business had to close due to restrictions.
Interest rates were slashed, sending home loan rates to record lows, encouraging more people to buy their first home.
By the time the Greens’ income returned to normal, house prices were rising again — and their deposit wasn’t enough.
“We’re living 25 kilometres out of the city, we’re not expecting to be living in a premium suburb,” Mr Green says.
“It’s quite frustrating to feel that our generation are being asked to borrow obscene amounts of money.