That was why Peter Martin claimed unemployment became extinct in ACT.Things are not as rosy as it seems. It does sound good when we "got twice as many job vacancies as people unemployed". But, the devil is in the detail. People who came to Canberra/ACT for jobs could not afford to live here. “They get a room in a motel and can’t find a home.”
According to Martin, a recent published analysis of housing costs in more than 200 English-speaking cities by Demographia rated Canberra “severely unaffordable” along with New York, London and Los Angeles.
Today I just found a PHD student at work got $480/week for assistantship but has to pay $350 on a three-bed room at the skirt of the city. By the way, he also has a family with two little boys to support!
It seems supply restrains (ACT government owns most of the land and didn't lease it until recently) and long-time stable economic growth contributed to the high housing price. According to MM, Australia hasn't hit by a recession ever since 1990.
Sounds too good to be true to this ecologist, who is a firm believer of cycles. Indeed Canberra’s economic growth has slowed to zero in the most recent quarter. Trend jobs growth in the past year is also near zero (slightly lower actually), according to Martin's another blog. Also today they reported Australia's inflation hit a 16 year high in the recent quarter.
I smell a thunderstorm. My only hope is that it is not going to be a hurricane.
P.S. MM, the geographer, said this was a picture of a typical thunder storm cloud.
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