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30th
May
2007
Perth cements spot as Australia’s priciest city : thewest.com.au
I was interested to read in this morning’s newspaper that Perth has crept into first place as Australia’s most expensive place to buy a home. It’s not a huge surprise given the way house prices have gone up over the last couple of years, but it’s still pretty amazing when you compare it to a few years ago. Certainly less than 5 years ago I can remember looking at prices in Sydney and wondering how on earth regular people could afford to live there, and being thankful that our prices in Perth were half the amount. Not so anymore – the median house price in Perth is now $508,900, just passing Syndey’s $507,400. The median monthly mortgage payment is now $3009, compared to $3000 in Sydney. Now that amount seems quite a lot to me, and I’m on a reasonably high income – I don’t know how people on average wages could manage that.
Looking on a broader scale, let’s review the List of most expensive cities from 2006. Back then Sydney was 19th [20th in 2005], and Perth was 93rd [93rd in 2005]. Assuming that housing is one of the biggest expenses to be taken into account, and assuming relative stability of the rest of the list (and these are big assumptions I know!) then this news might catapult Perth into the top 20 most expensive cities in the world! How crazy is that? Especially considering we are the most isolated capital city in the world, but then again maybe that’s part of the charm for some people (that and maybe the little fact of the large supply of well paying mining jobs in this part of the world..)
This is interesting to compare to house prices elsewhere in the world. Jenni showed me the other day some pictures/prices that she had been sent of homes in Nashville. Compare the house on the left in Baldivis (not far from us, 44km from Perth) for A$499,000; with this house on the right from Nashville for A$455,000. I know which one looks better to me! Now I know there’s a whole lot of other factors to take into account when performing such a comparison aside from price and looks, but as a simple visual illustration of how crazy the house prices here in Perth have gone I think it’s quite telling. I’ll be very interested to see where Perth actually ranks on the next list of most expensive cities (FYI – Nashville is not even in the top 144) and if we do make it up to the top 20 or not. Though I guess it’s not a climb we want to be celebrating too much. Anyway I suppose I’d better get back to work so I can afford those mortgage payments… 
Categories : Australia, Local, News |
30th
May
2007
Arkhangelsk – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arkhangelsk (Russian: ????????????), formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. Arkhangelsk was the chief sea port of medieval Russia. It is served by Talagi Airport and the smaller Vaskovo Airport, but also is home to Lakhta military air base. Population: 356,051 (2002 Census); down from 415,921 recorded in the 1989 Census. [...read more... ]
Categories : Travel, Wikipedia |
Also he gave me some pens and a model heart #
for tonight’s home group #