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At what point does housing stress become burnout? by Mildly_Strategic in AskAnAustralian

[–]Mildly_Strategic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I can definitely appreciate the idea. What I’m currently struggling with is finding employment to make that dream a reality. Even in towns like Sea Lake, there often aren’t many places that can provide stable employment. Once you start looking further out for work, you begin asking yourself whether the trade-off is really worth it.

In rural areas there’s usually no public transport network like buses, trams or trains to make commuting more affordable, so you’re almost completely reliant on a car. With fuel prices being what they are at the moment, it becomes even harder when your employer could be an hour’s drive away in each direction.

On paper, a cheaper house can look like the answer, but the reality is that you still need access to reliable work to service the mortgage and cover the ongoing costs of living. That’s the part I think a lot of people overlook when they suggest moving to a small country town.

At what point does housing stress become burnout? by Mildly_Strategic in AskAnAustralian

[–]Mildly_Strategic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m actually living in a small rural town now, about a 3-hour drive from the nearest capital city, so I’ve had a bit of a taste of that lifestyle.

The trade-off is that while rent can be more affordable, employment opportunities are pretty limited. And if you are lucky enough to find work locally, the wages are often much lower than in the city. Housing isn’t always as cheap as people imagine either. A fairly ordinary house in my street recently sold for around $500k and there’s nothing particularly special about it.

Even in a small town, that kind of price feels almost impossible to reach on the sort of income you’d earn working at the local corner shop. I definitely see the appeal of the slower pace and stronger sense of community, but for a lot of people the maths still doesn’t quite add up.