Rob, on the issue you mention of attracting talent to NZ, I think another constraint is the cost of housing there relative to incomes. My 3 bed, 2.5 bath, double garage, split level home on roughly 1/5 acre in a nice Chicago suburb close to good schools is worth (guessing a little) about 250k and my mortgage rate is under 3%. Before the slump it was 330k. I'd love to move back, maybe will one day, but it's pretty hard to justify under current market conditions and zoning policies.
The problem is certainly most acute in Auckland - and that's significant in the context of the article, since as you point out concentration of talent is important in order to attract talent.
But I think it's a mistake to assume that this is just an Auckland issue. For NZ as a whole, the median house price in September was 350k (http://bit.ly/rr846S) - around US273k, while in the US, the Q3/2011 median single family house price was US170k (http://bit.ly/tSnJa1).
That's a pretty big difference - and that's before you start thinking about relative incomes and interest rates, both of which also work against attracting people to NZ.
Rob, on the issue you mention of attracting talent to NZ, I think another constraint is the cost of housing there relative to incomes. My 3 bed, 2.5 bath, double garage, split level home on roughly 1/5 acre in a nice Chicago suburb close to good schools is worth (guessing a little) about 250k and my mortgage rate is under 3%. Before the slump it was 330k. I'd love to move back, maybe will one day, but it's pretty hard to justify under current market conditions and zoning policies.
ReplyDeleteI think that's specifically an Auckland problem. The rest of the country doesn't suffer from inflated housing prices nearly as much.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is certainly most acute in Auckland - and that's significant in the context of the article, since as you point out concentration of talent is important in order to attract talent.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it's a mistake to assume that this is just an Auckland issue. For NZ as a whole, the median house price in September was 350k (http://bit.ly/rr846S) - around US273k, while in the US, the Q3/2011 median single family house price was US170k (http://bit.ly/tSnJa1).
That's a pretty big difference - and that's before you start thinking about relative incomes and interest rates, both of which also work against attracting people to NZ.