The housing industry price bubble, coupled with rising interest rates, has resulted in more Australians struggling to buy and also then to pay off their home. Perhaps best demonstrating this struggle is that over the past decade outright home ownership dropped by about nine percentage points to 34.3 per cent. When you add to this the fact that while income doubled between 1985 and 2004, house prices increased 400 per cent, it’s little wonder that young people are finding it difficult to buy homes and why so many home owners are under housing stress.

The nineteenth AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report looks at housing affordability in Australia, the number of home owners and renters experiencing housing stress and at how each generation is faring.