Housing Affordability
Housing affordability is pretty important. Shelter is fundamental in the hierarchy of needs. Young couples put off having children until they can afford a house. Their living expenses influence the number of children they might have. The number of children they have is influenced to a large extent by how old they are when they start having children. Their lives get put on hold until they can afford a home. A huge part of their take-home pay goes toward their mortgage. The Australian cities mostly developed after the invention of the motor car and after trains. Australian cities are thus less densely populated than many older cities elsewhere in the world. In Australia, people learned to commute by car or train to their family home along tree-lined streets with big green nature strips past parks and ovals to their spacious houses with large front and back yards. To give this up would be cultural heresy. The political force referred to as "Not in My Backyard" NIMBY is very re...