Australian cities surge in cost-of-living survey

www.marketwatch.com...

SYDNEY -(MarketWatch)- A cataclysmic rise in the local currency has made Australian cities among the least affordable in the world, a survey by consulting firm Mercer showed Tuesday.

After a more than 30% rise in the local unit in the past year, Australia now has four of the 31 most expensive cities in the world. Sydney, its largest city, is now the 14th most expensive in the world, up from 24th a year ago. Among the biggest gainers in the entire global survey, the mining capital of Western Australia, Perth, rallied 30 places to stand at 30th. Rounding out the list, Melbourne rose 12 places to rank 21st, while Brisbane rose 24 spots to 31st.

Im not from Australia, but Im sure theres some members on here from Australia. What do yall think about this? Is the rising cost of living noticable?

I would like the see a recent cost-of-living survey for us here in the US. I would think the cost of living here would be on the rise to.

Edit - After thinking about it for a second, I wonder if the cost of living has risen world wide?

Australia today...Chicago tomorrow.

It's just seems inevitable. The monetary printing presses are going at 110% these days.

Hey! Gotta keep the "too big to fail" banks afloat. That is priority #1 right?

For a while i was noticing rises on a weekly basis

With our stupid goverment and carbon tax it wil rise in even more.

They are building a country for the elites, and those who can not afford to live will perish.

Though there is still cheap living about 1000km out of the cities.

reply to post by guessing


Which is where I'll be heading once the Chinese invade

Living on a station, surviving on yabbies & mountains of horrible XXXX beer...

reply to post by guessing

With our stupid goverment and carbon tax it wil rise in even more

I actually came across this article while reading the one in the OP

Support for Australian government hits record low

SYDNEY -(MarketWatch)- The Labor-led government of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard came under renewed pressure Tuesday with a closely watched opinion poll showing its popularity at record lows just days after it introduced the terms of a controversial tax on carbon emissions.

Going out on a limb here, but Im guessing the new carbon tax will further increase the cost of living?

They are trying to tell us it will add roughly $9.90 (pretty exact of them) per week to the average household.

Personally, I wouldn't believe Julia Gillard if she told me she had red hair. This is the same woman who said this pre-election -

www.youtube.com...

And here we are, facing a carbon tax. Initiated by her & her cronies.

rudd, gillard, howard, abbott, hawke, keating, hewson, turnball.

it doesn't matter whos face (or ginger hair) they have.

they are all the same stooge.

Originally posted by TRiPWiRE
They are trying to tell us it will add roughly $9.90 (pretty exact of them) per week to the average household.

Personally, I wouldn't believe Julia Gillard if she told me she had red hair. This is the same woman who said this pre-election -

www.youtube.com...

And here we are, facing a carbon tax. Initiated by her & her cronies.

Don't blame me, I didn't vote

Seriously though our country is going dowwwwwwwwwwwwwnhill, I never thought I'd miss the Howard government eh?

reply to post by TRiPWiRE


Re this new carbon tax they sprung on us; read this:

Clean Tech sector heading for a major crash......

oilprice.com...

Still the best country in the world to live in as far as I'm concerned. We may be expensive but we've also got some of the most liveable cities. That comes at a price I guess.

HOWEVER.....

If the population keeps increasing through unsustainable migration levels, this will all change very rapidly. McMansions are encroaching on more and more farm land diminishing our ability to produce our own food. Add to that, over farming and other land/water mismanagement has caused salination/arid dead-zones, and because we have so many people all vying for the same properties, house + rental prices are blown sky high. Happy Days Ahead!

IRM

I'm from Sydney and the cost of living here is fast reaching critical levels. It's risen faster than inflation and (imo) Australia is making a beeline towards a severe recesssion/possible depression.

42% of my after-tax income goes towards rent (and I live 1hr drive from the CBD in a pretty average unit), my electricity bills have gone up ~$200/quarter in the last 6months, water rates are rising, public transport is set to rise 30% over the next couple of years (it's cheaper to put a tank of gas in the car than it is to get a weekly train ticket even with petrol @ $1.60/litre for E98 or $1.30/litre for crappy E10).

Articles like this one (www.dailytelegraph.com.au...]) show just how fast things are getting out of hand. 25% increase in food/alcohol, 30% increase in wheat/sugar over the last few years, a flood levy tax that added $1500 to my taxes and now a carbon tax that is likely to not only increase the cost of groceries by a noticable amount (7% according to this story - www.theaustralian.com.au...), but no doubt will also increase my income taxes as well.

Property prices are either stagnating or declining in most of our capital cities, people are increasingly spending less money on luxury electronics, new cars etc, our younger generation are living with their parents longer, small businesses are struggling and/or shutting down, hell even the larger companies are starting to fight amongst themselves for our dollars (coles vs woolworths with the whole bread/milk price war).

My partner & I (along with a number of people we know) are looking at moving to Brisbane sometime in the next 12months to try and get away from the exhorbitant cost of living in Sydney. There's an increasing sense of nervousness in the australian public because I think even the people that don't want to admitt we have big problems are starting to sense that there's trouble brewing just around the corner.

I live in Oz for approx six months a year, and grew up here from age eight to twenty, things are dire here if you are a worker on less than $50,000 (single)a year or less than $80,000 a year per household(family).

By dire I mean you won't ever buy a house , as the Chinese , Koreans , ect are buying up property in the capital cities at inflated values to satisfy the dictates of the Communist nations who giv eindividuals money to buy up Australia.

This thirty years ago would be the greatest conspiracy ever in Australia,now not one newspaper even mentions it as important.

Australia has sold its soul to the "Foreigner ...cashed up beyond imagination....it is a war lost without a single shot.

China has an army, navy , Air Force that could crush us within months, so I guess selling out is better than dying .

Th ereason the standard of living has dropped is because our nation is being transferred by stealth to the Eastern overlords...the traitors are now rich beyond their imaginings, whilst the masses are in shock.

I was going to write a reply but I think it's been pretty much summed up already... government taxes us to oblivion, lets us starve, then lets the yellow man walk in and take our place, I'm 29, still at home, tried saving for a place for many years, my partner lives with me and the folks, in the last 12 months we've just decided to live for the now and not worry too much byond the next few years, god I wish Id lived in Australia 30+ years ago, seeing it in movies, hearing peoples stories of the past, it sounds like a very different place to the one I'm living in now

End rant!

reply to post by LordGoofus

Just to let you know...Brisbane was once a very good place to live...easy going , quiet , affordable, think opposites , and that is what Brisbane is now...it is almost as dear as Sydney complete with Ethnic Gangs..crime beyond control, and unaffordable rents and House Prices (for Aussies that is) don't bother moving and I am telling you 100% like it is.

This nation is SOLD.

reply to post by LordGoofus


I'm also in Sydney and your post is absolutely spot on.

Although I have noticed some foodstuffs have dropped in price but the cost of fresh produce is now through the roof, we have just received rental and noticeable electrical increases and with the past two new taxes.....I'm out of here too when my youngest finishes high school in a year. Not sure where but it will be somewhere where I can grow my own fruit and vegies and a fare distance above sea level. Keep that in mind when you consider Brisbane. There are some good spots up in Cairns and near the border with Victoria and NSW.

Shopping habits are dramatically changing, no doubts about it and all I can see is the unemployment levels spiking within the year and the property market bubble IS going to burst towards the end of this year well in to 2012. Small and medium sized businesses are already packing up almost every week now. If there is going to be any profits made, this year is the last.