Wake up Auckland

I guess it helps to have just sold and bought a house just recently, but I now have a bad habit of wanting to know what places are worth when we pass a for sale sign. I mentioned it a bit in my blogs from Western Australia, mostly because in some towns just about every second house was for sale. Over there it was depressing, nothing was selling. The prices were not too far from what we are used to seeing in New Zealand with the exception of the new houses in the suburbs around Perth that were quite well priced. That is until I started to look around at the house prices in the places we have visited in the USA.

First stop was Las Vegas. Although we only really hung around an area in one part of Vegas, it was still a very nice average suburb . Had all the shops and places anyone would want. We could have bought a 3 bed 2.5 bath for between 250 to 350k USD. They all had a/c, double garage and separate formal dining. Wow, we thought... That's different to New Zealand.
Next stop was New York. OK I know what your thinking... No way could anyone afford a place in New York right? Wrong... Even a 1 bed 1 bath condo in the upper west side 1 block from Central Park is more affordable than the north shore of Auckland. In Lower Manhattan you could find a 2 bedroom place in that range and if you were prepared to live in New Jersey, just a 15 minute commute from the financial district of New York City you could own a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom 'brownstone' for under 750kUSD.
Then we get to small town USA... and they are not even really small towns. Were are talking New England, upstate New York and some very desirable places. You can even buy an 14 bedroom 9 bath manor with 5.5 acres for 590k (check it out here http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/101-Main-St_Dalton_MA_01226_M36919-32046 ) , or a normal house in the same town for 190k..

It really makes me want to say WAKE UP AUCKLAND your living in dream land and being fed bullshit. There is no way a 3 bed 1 bath fibrolite shithole on the south side of a hill in Glenfield is worth 750k. If you can get that for it it's saying something is broken with the market. It's either a bubble or a serious supply and demand issue. Either way it indicates poor management of the resource..

I love New Zealand. Seeing this I love New Zealand even more for providing us so much from so little. We have been able to use our home to provide not just shelter but a load of cash. It was never supposed to do that and I feel like we have achieved this at the expense of an entire generation of families after us. So wake up, take the cash! Live life and then live somewhere else, you will be glad you did.