The Great Australian Dream

...is home ownership, of course.

                (photo from Fitzpatricks Real estate)

If you Google this term that's what comes up. But we all knew it already. Do we feel it though? I used to. There was a time when all I wanted was to own our home but things have changed. For the time being I've adjusted my way of thinking and am telling myself that the Great Australian Dream for this family is a fabulous rental.

So I guess I still do feel it's a dream of mine, just one that's on hold.

While we dabbled in home ownership, we only got as far as an apartment when back in '05 we quickly realised that the money we had was going to buy little more than a one bedroom (and tiny everything else) home. As anyone else who has house hunted will agree, you very quickly learn to compromise. 

In reality we owned the bathroom or perhaps just the laundry of our place and in those few years of mortgage payments we didn't get much further. The bank did pretty well though :) Things changed for us when two became three. We tried sharing an already tight bedroom with a tiny Lucie (and a huge cot!)and naturally it was soon time to move.

We rented it out for a while before making the decision to sell. The rest is a long and boring story that can be summarised in five words: priced out of the market. In Melbourne this is a common story and so I know we're not alone in accepting that the housing dream is sadly becoming totally unobtainable, for some, or is it most?

Oh well, it's not all bad. As a renter I've learned that home really is where the heart is. It sounds corny but it's true as I've loved living where we are now and I'll love our next house just as much. For me, home is wherever Jeremy and Lucie are that's 100% fine for now. Sure, I'd love to own again some day and perhaps we'll even be able to make this happen by the time Lucie is ready to move out of home :)  

So why am I thinking so much about this? Because a journalist interviewed me today about this very topic. She's coming with a camera man *gasp* to do a follow up interview tomorrow and if it goes any further I'll let you know where and when you can check it out! It would have to be a pretty slow news day though if they do anything with the footage of me and my opinions :)