Mortgage Stress

Labor says mortgage stress at record high : "Mortgage stress is when someone pays more than 30 per cent of their gross income on mortgage repayments."

It can get worse. John Howard was the treasurer when mortgage interest rates kept going up higher and higher until about 16 or 18 %. Might even have been more. I had a home and a family. I had a good job but increasingly my money went on the mortgage. The payments just kept going up and up and John Howard was saying it had to be. I had food for children but not for myself. I lived on bread and honey and soup. My mum brought me down a meal once a week and colleagues at work invited me to dinner. They gave me paint for my house and people gave me wool so I could knit and not go mad. I was forever borrowing money and if the car broke down I was crying because I had no money to fix it. Yes, I survived. I survived . I worked all day, worried all night and I thank myself lucky I had the lovely faces of children to lighten the load. As soon as the interest rates went down I sold that house and got out of it as fast as I could and have never looked back. It was such misery and I never want to see anyone living like that. The trite talk counts for nothing. They should try the lifestyle that comes with high interest rates and not quite enough money even if you do have a good income. Heaven help those who are just managing. The housing market is merciless...and it is about others making money by putting people to the wall, so get that very clear.