Real Estate Code Words Mask the Real Story

With the flooding of the real estate market in the US, there is more pressure on real estate agents to talk up properties. I have always been interested by the phrases that are chosen to describe a property. Here is a good primer.

I was driving around our neighbourhood today and there are quite a few homes on the market. It is very boyant here in Adelaide. We just bought and the real estate agent and the loan broker were saying that there is a shortage of houses on the market, which is driving up prices, especially in an optimistic market. Adelaide prices are cheap compared to some of the outrageous prices in the other states. There were quite a few "Perfect Starter Home" and "Great First Home". All this for around $300K with at least $150K required to make the home liveable, based on our own real estate search.

Having just gone massively into debt again it boggles my mind how some new entrants can get into the market. We have a fairly solid combined income, but even then our mortgage payments will be double what we currently pay in rent. There is not the same certainty that there is in the US with 30 year fixed. The longest here is about 5 years and that is around 8 percent now. Although many people have done well with property investments in the last 10 years, it is painful to enter the market now.

That said it is nice to have your own home. We are looking forward to everything except the mortgage payment and physically moving.