Month: July 2023

Crystal Ball: House prices to stabilize? Economic inequality to increase?

Fergus YoungLeave a comment

High level hunch is that house prices are likely to stabilize and may even go back up a little across the country. That said, my emotional desire is for them to (continue) to fall because frankly house prices I feel are still ridiculous.

Sensing there is still a lot of FOMO (Despite recent price reductions) along with excess liquidity in the system and a lot of people “waiting”. This “system” seem to have an insane fascination of rewarding property investment instead of those investing in productive enterprise / endeavors (including paid employment) and I state this as being a Landlord myself.

Without wanting to sound conspiratorial, I will admit to having some personal concern we are perhaps sliding into some sort of neo-feudalism longer term as wealth inequality continues to accelerate unabated and unchallenged by the ordinary working class.

Will further admit that I’ve lost faith that I can single-handedly stop or meaningfully influence (by rallying up the populous or otherwise) this turn of events. In the meantime all I can do is continue to air my concerns to those with a modicum of power in a vain attempt to see change.

Addendum 6th August 2023: Across the ditch in Reddit Land in the Australian Sub-reddit, There has been increasing amount of discussion regarding the effects of economic inequality where people, especially younger people are losing their respect towards the ‘system’.

“For a lot of people, even if you work hard, live modestly, and try to be a good citizen, you’re seeing your purchasing power go down steadily over time due to inflation and stagnant wages, you can’t afford to go to the dentist, and you will never qualify for a mortgage on a house within reasonable traveling distance from your job in Syd/Melb/Bris.

I’m honestly surprised there aren’t people throwing rocks in the street.”

– MortalWombat1974

Crystal Ball: House prices to stabilize? Economic inequality to increase?

Half price public transport Adult fares ended in Auckland

Fergus YoungLeave a comment

For me personally, a return to full price adult fares is a deal breaker and will likely result in a substantial drop in my utilization of Auckland Public Transport. Half price fares did compel me to at least try out public transport to get around Auckland predominantly during the weekends (including picking up groceries at Pak n’ Save Glen Innes).

That said, it was a shit show of cancelled services, missed connections, helping out fellow public transport users who were lost, avoiding the derranged, taking two hours to get to your destintation when a car could do it in a third or even a quarter of the time. Frankly, I felt like a second class citizen and that the powers to be really couldn’t give a toss about Public Transport users.

My place of employment (East Tamaki) is poorly served by public transit so I don’t have the opportunity to use public transport regularly (even though I have longed for decades for being able to do so) and subsequently it doesn’t make sense for me to buy a monthly pass. I have to join the throngs of other single occupant cars to make the 16 km journey (32 km return) to and from work as the only pragmatic balance between cost, personal safety, and time.

Will be going back to using my car more in the weekend, even accounting for the 30c tax and excise being added back on. A bus fare of $2.37 for one way one zone travel just isn’t compelling for me in many situations. More so for short journeys that cross a zone boundary. That said exceptions where Public transport could still work for me…

  • $4.20 to get into the CBD, with a $8.40 round trip, Cheaper than driving (single occupant) and paying for parking. That said, I don’t find myself needing to go into the CBD very often at all.
  • Travel from the end of one zone to the other end (e.g Eastern Suburbs to New Lynn), typically using Bus 75 and hopping on the Western Line trains at Newmarket. The Same journey in an ICE car would probably be $6-8 one way  inclusive of wear and tear
Half price public transport Adult fares ended in Auckland