First-home buyers flee capital cities

First-home buyers flee capital cities : "Population growth in regional areas outstripped, or equalled, capital-city growth in Australia's three largest states in 2005 and 2006, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) said today." And why not? Regional Australia can be beautiful and it can still be a place where you build your dreams and your dream lifestyle. You get away from it all and develop a city or town with a distinct character. Regional...not isolated. If the houses are cheaper then so be it because we need to get some of our regional areas up and running again and a lot of our economic growth does come from regional Australia and always has. Darwin is obviously a drawcard as a city because it had the nation's highest growth rate. People obviously like the tropical, laid back atmosphere and it's a good foil to the Queensland play park image.