perceptions_now wrote on Feb 20
th, 2013 at 12:53pm:
There are some basic flaws, at the crux of the FHOG scheme!
It inflates Government Debt.
It often enables younger Home Buyers to enter the Home market, by providing them with a sufficient deposit, even though their previous (particularly savings history) may have meant they would NOT qualify for a Housing Loan.
All of which sound a little like the aim of the US subprime system?
In any event, it does distort the system & it is now doing so at a time when Housing Prices are struggling to increase and in many instances they are actually in Decline.
This is completely different to much of the last century when housing Prices were virtually guaranteed to rise.
IF, as seems likely, Australia follows the trends already shown in Japan, the USA & many European countries, then Housing Prices will continue to Decline further, over the next several decades, WHICH WOULD MEAN MANY YOUNG AUSTRALIANS WILL LOSE THEIR HOUSING DREAM & THEN STRUGGLE WITH THEIR BAD CREDIT RATING!
If my memory serves me, the FHOG was introduced around 2000 as an offset to the GST, which is now well entrenched and I would suggest that the FHOG has now outlived its usefulness, along with some other benefits, such as the Baby Bonus and it's time to get rid of some of these benefits.
At the same time, we should also enact many of the Henry Report suggestions and then keep going, with an eye on Productivity, with additional measures to ensure ALL segments, including companies & the top 10% of income earners also pay their fair share of taxes!
Just as an aside (some would no doubt say useless), did you know that, in the USA -
1) The bottom 50% of income earners in the US, collectively own less than 1% of the national wealth.
2) Between 2001-2007 66% of income growth went to the top 1% of US citizens.
3) The wealthiest 1% of US citizens owns more wealth than the bottom 95% combined.
The situation in OZ may not be quite as bad, BUT we are certainly heading in that direction.
According to Steve Keen the FHOG was introduced by Bob Hawke back in 1983.
Quote:What bollocks. First home buyers weren’t locked out by the ending of the first home vendors’ grant: they were locked out by the impossibly high prices that this grant has helped generate over the 30 years since it was first invented. And its purpose has never been to give first home buyers a helping hand: it has always been used as a way of giving the economy the economic equivalent of a steroid injection. First home buyers have instead been the sacrificial lambs of an asset-price-inflation route to apparent national prosperity.
This was why Bob Hawke’ introduced the first home owner’s grant in the first place back in 1983. Bob Hawke had just beaten Malcolm Fraser in an election over the level of unemployment, and his advisors suggested a grant as a way of reviving the housing market, and perhaps the economy. It worked a treat, and that (plus speculative lending to finance the Ponzi schemes of Christopher Skase and the rest of the White Shoe brigade) enabled Paul Keating to claim the mantle of 'World’s Greatest Treasurer' in the 1980s.
But the grant also supercharged house price rises as well, so each boost to a flailing economy flailed the chances of first home buyers being able to buy a house in the first place. The impact of the grant on house prices is obvious when you look at movements in house prices before it was introduced, after, when it was in operation, and when it was doubled (or trebled, as under Kevin Rudd).
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/property-housing-first-home-b...