In your own imagination, what do you consider the average mortgage?

[Floweryfields]

My first mortgage was $70 000 - I am guessing the average these days in my area would be $200 000 anything bigger than that would give me palpitations!

I've never understood the need to have such a huge house that requires you to work so many hours to pay for it, that all you basically do is sleep in it.

[~Kim~]

Well we have an average mortgage then, but man that would go nowhere in Sydney. I can't imagine most first home buyers in Sydney or Melbourne would have enough deposit to bring the mortgage they actually take out to average levels.

Here in central Australia rent and the cost of houses are huge too....I guess that's why it's an average.

[wysiwyg]

I've never understood the need to have such a huge house that requires you to work so many hours to pay for it, that all you basically do is sleep in it.

Not all big mortgages are due to big houses - alot is due to location and time you get into the market.

[kimmi]

Not all big mortgages are due to big houses - alot is due to location and time you get into the market.

Oh Absolutely... As the saying goes, location, location, location!!

[LuluHB]

Definitely this. We sold our last house for half as much again as we paid for the old house which we demolished and the new houswe we built on the land only 4 years before. Part of that was due to the house we built and also the area we were in, but most of it was just plain good luck that we bought into the area just before the boom and sold during the boom.

[Miss.September]

I've never understood the need to have such a huge house that requires you to work so many hours to pay for it, that all you basically do is sleep in it.

The big bucks don't buy big houses these days. Our first mortgage for a house and land deal was five years ago for $290000 and that got us an 18 square house (14 square living) on a shoebox block.

It's scary the amount it has hiked in just a few years - we bought our land (less than 1/8 of an acre) at the end of 2005 and paid $120K on the outskirts of Melb and built for $170K. Now the same size house and land is selling off the plan for almost $100K on top of that. Crazy stuff.