When we think of housing affordability, we usually only consider the time spent saving for a deposit (if that can be achieved) or the ratio of the median household income to the cost the median house to figure out how long it would take the average house to pay of a house if all the take home pay was dedicated to the mortgage.
What is usually not taken into consideration is the household income required to comfortably pay back a mortgage. Overseas, it's considered that 30% of the median pay should be used to for mortgage payments.... in Auckland, it's currently 61% of the average household income. The median house value in Auckland is $1,020,000 so with a 20% deposit that means they are borrowing $816,000 which, at 7.06% one year (in June) means they are paying back $82,000. With a typical household income of $134,000, that means that family has 61% of their income goes in mortgage payments.
To make matter worse, to be at the overseas "comfortable" level of 30% for mortgage repayments, the household income has to rise to from $134,000 to $273,000 PA to afford the medium Auckland house.
And the rest of the country isn't that much better off... in Wellington, buyers would need a household income of $242,000 to be at that 30% comfortable repayment level, in Tauranga it's $213,000 while Dunedin households need an income of $158,000.
View attachment 8654
The figures above are from this article...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/housi...y-buy-a-new-house/2MFWMI3SERADNIRMLEIHQNXBDU/