‘‘If we had children, we couldn’t afford a stay-at-home parent.’’
Crunch time came at a heated house auction in Auckland.
First-home buyers Christie, 33, and Marc Sammons, 36, watched as competing bidders pushed the price of their ideal home $60,000 above their half-million-dollar ceiling.
‘‘A lot of the houses go for mega high prices, which makes you nervous,’’ Christie Sammons says. ‘‘Things were quite fevered at auctions.’’
The couple began house-hunting in 2007 but found prices too high. They returned to the fray early last year and, with careful budgeting, saved a 10 per cent deposit.
‘‘We didn’t want to change our lifestyle too much, so we kept track of our spending for a few months, including a few trips to Australia.’’
They were surprised to find the recession having little impact on prices.
‘‘When we first started looking people were just starting to go nuts on prices. What we thought was reasonable wasn’t actually a reflection of the market.‘‘
They revised their budget to ensure they could live in an area they liked and bought a two-bedroom home in One Tree Hill.
‘‘We haven’t noticed a difference financially because we planned so well in advance. You’ve got to be able to do it on one income, just in case.’’
They can still afford Australian holidays and to eat out, but say they are careful about avoiding debt.
Despite all that, she feels buying a house is much harder now than for previous generations of first-time buyers because families now cannot afford mortgages on a single income.
‘‘If we were to have children, I don’t think we could permanently have one stay-at-home parent unless one of us had a better-paid job.’’