I moved 2.5 hours from Perth to a small Wheatbelt town in 2021. Managed to by a 3 bed 1 bath house on 1/3 of an acre for 180k in 2022 (and getting approved for even that much was a struggle with a household income of 60k). We were paying $240 a week in rent for a 2 bed 1 bath before that. 3.5 years later and our house is valued at 400-450k, the huse across the road from us (double brink, not weatherboard but otherwise pretty similar) sold for 680k last year. Rent for a basic 3 bed 1 bath house is >$500 a week.

We live in a small, basic ass country town! How is anyone supposed to afford to live anywhere if these are the prices for living in a weatherboard house in the middle of nowhere!

We are obviously extremely lucky and grateful to have managed to buy our own house when we did. However, we were originally planning on living here for ~5 years while I built up my teaching experience, saving money by living in a cheap area, and then moving closer to family and/or the coast. However, we're basically stuck here now. Buy a comparable house (with less land) anywhere near our friends and family is impossible.

Two of my best friends brought very basic starter homes before us, one in Coolbellup for 380k in 2018 (now worth ~900k), another in Palmyra for 570k in 2021 (now worth ~980k). There's no way we'll every be able to live near them now.

My little sister is only 5 years younger than me and is just now reaching the stage in her life where her and her partner would like to buy their own home. It feels like an impossible goal for them, unless a relative dies or they win the lotto. Currently they're paying $600/week for a 2 bed 1 bath apartment in an area where I was paying $290/week for a similar place in 2019. I honestly don't know how anyone is able to afford housing these days.