Generation Rent says bye-bye to buying a home

Where our parents see rent money as “dead money”, Generation Rent baulks at the idea of becoming mortgage slaves, shackled to the high interest demands of a supersized mortgage.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere. Interest paid to the bank is as dead as any rent money.

For this, we earn the rebuke that we’re too focused on “lifestyle”, too hoity-toity to move out to the suburbs and buy a modest, entry-level home.

Yeah, we’re lazy buggers, we don’t want to sit in smog-soaked traffic all day, schlepping to the city from the outer suburbs. We want access to vibrant inner-city community facilities. How selfish.

Hate to break it to you, but 20s and 30s somethings are busting a gut trying to climb the career ladder. The days of a job for life are gone. We change jobs more often than previous generations – meaning we need the freedom and flexibility to move more often and live close to work.

Tying ourselves to one home base means potential long commutes. And traffic congestion is a leech on the happiness of society.

Figures quoted by economics professor Andrew Oswald suggest there is in fact little correlation between high rates of home ownership and robust economies.

Indeed, one of Europe’s healthiest economies, Switzerland - which boasts a miniscule jobless rate of 3.4 per cent - has its lowest home ownership rate. As many as seven out of ten Swiss people rent.

In Australia, the percentage is reversed. Just three in 10 households rent.

Australia, in this way, more closely resembles the basket-case economy of Spain, where 83 per cent own their own home (with or without a mortgage), but one in four have no job.

Europe’s traditional economic powerhouse, Germany, is home to one of the next lowest rates of home ownership rate (although it has risen recently). In Germany, rental leases can last decades. So long, in fact,We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. that it is not uncommon for tenants to provide their own kitchen (IKEA, perhaps).Solar Sister is a network of women who sell solar lamp to communities that don't have access to electricity.

Professor Oswald argues high home ownership rates are “like a treacle blanket thrown over the surface of the economy”. Owning a home discourages people from moving to find better jobs or finding replacement jobs if they lose theirs.

A more flexible economy demands a more flexible housing market.Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories!

The clustering of workplaces in inner city areas will also mean more demand for well-located, inner-city housing.

Often, in such areas, it can be more affordable to rent rather than buy the same property. Home prices are pushed up because of location, location, location. And rents can lag behind. Often, the rent you pay on an inner-city pad is cheaper than the interest cost of servicing a mortgage on the same property.

Better to rent, and invest the difference in a term deposit or shares, which outperformed house prices last year. Indeed, with affordability so stretched, it’s hard to see house prices taking off for some time.

For most of Generation Rent, the real barrier to home purchase today is the need to save up that supersized deposit. It’s not just by choice, but by necessity that we rent. The ratio of home prices to incomes has doubled from around three times annual salaries back in the 1980s, to six times today.

Interest rates may be low, but that doesn’t make it any easier to save that 20 per cent deposit. In fact, low interest rates make it harder by reducing the return on savings. Then there’s stamp duty to consider.

So, it should come as no surprise that a new generation is waiting longer before taking the property plunge.

Far from frittering away our money, we’re actually showing a level of financial conservatism not seen since our grandparent’s generation. We’ll save now and minimise our debt burden later.

We’ll step on to the property ladder eventually, if it suits us. And if we don’t have to pay more in interest to the bank than it would cost to rent.

We’ll work longer – no retirement parties at 50 for us – meaning more income later in life to cover housing costs. And by then, we’ll have had the benefit of a lifetime of setting aside 9 per cent – rising soon to 12 per cent - of our income into superannuation to support us in a comfortable retirement.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his Lebanese militant group does not need support from allies in Syria or Iran for any future battle against Israel.

Nasrallah's comments, during a speech from an undisclosed location, are the closest thing yet to a response to allegations that Israeli jets were targeting a Syrian weapons convoy destined for Hezbollah during a strike near Damascus on Jan 30.

World powers fear that as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad loses control during a 23-month-old civil war, militant groups such as Hezbollah or Syrian rebels could acquire arms to use against Israel, including chemical weapons.

But Nasrallah, a close ally of Assad, said that Hezbollah is prepared for a future fight against its southern neighbor Israel, with which it fought a 34-day war in 2006.

"Everything we need for the next battle we have in Lebanon and we keep in Lebanon," he said. "We do not need to take anything, not from Syria nor Iran."

Damascus has denied assertions by diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources that Syrian weapons were to be sent to Hezbollah. It said the Israeli air strike hit the Jamraya military research complex on the northwestern fringes of Damascus, 8 miles from the border with Lebanon.

Syrian television broadcast what it said was footage from the Jamraya base showing extensive damage to buildings and several heavy military vehicles that appeared capable of carrying missiles.

Israel has maintained official silence about the raid.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. But on February 3 Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attack showed Israel was serious about preventing the flow of heavy weapons into Lebanon, appearing to acknowledge for the first time that the Jewish state was behind the strike.