[katkinkate]

You can find fairly cheap land if you go far enough west. That means, into the semi-arid, almost desert country the land gets cheap. The coastal strip is fairly expensive, unless the land is a rocky patch on top of a hill, or a flood-prone piece of low land that you're not allowed to build on because of the frequent floods (river flood channels, eg. Fitzroy River in Rockhampton).

Anyway, I'm not really sure what you would consider 'affordable', you might be richer than me. So here's the best site I've found to look over what's available.
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rs ... =bhp&t=lan

Good luck.

[Madpaddy]

whereismymonkey,
You should check this out.
http://www.rte.ie/tv/thecolony/history.html

The series is very interesting and should give you some idea of the effort involved in setting up a self sufficient community in Oz.

[Dvanharn]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'K')en Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business, believes something less than an economic disaster could cause big problems for some buyers entering the market. He's concerned that the combination of low interest rates and easy loans has artificially pushed up prices, and lulled consumers into a false belief that home values only go up.

That is reflected in the dramatic increase in interest-only loans, which usually become adjustable after five years. Their popularity jumped in California from 1.43 percent of all new mortgage loans in 2001 to more than 47 percent originated last year, according to LoanPerformance, a mortgage data and analytical company.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2005/nf20051028_4124_db016.htm]Housing Leaks a Little More Steam (link)[/url]
BUSINESS WEEK - NEWS ANALYSIS By Michael Englund and Rick MacDonald OCTOBER 28, 2005
September saw new home sales once again fall below economists' expectations, and the number of unsold homes is rising

[Armageddon]

the rule of thumb is, triple the governments number, and you will be pretty close to the actual number.

[gnm]

Yes, that rule of thumb is probably applicable to the governments reported inflation rate also. So if they say inflation is under control at 3%, just remember its actually 9%...



-G

[Revi]

The housing market may soften, but the price of woodland and good farmland isn't going down. Neither is the cost of a small, well insulated home outside of overheated markets. You have to live somewhere. The small house with features like a woodstove, solar panels, earth berm is like the hybrid of houses. The Mc Mansion, with cathedral ceilings in the far exurbs is the SUV. We're way overstocked with Mc Mansions. It's like the GMC dealership. Nobody's buying. Check out the toyota dealership. It's hopping. The broader housing market may be going, but the green market is just getting started.

[gnm]

I think you just described my house... Well minus the earth berm anyways...


-G

[aflurry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')he housing market may soften, but the price of woodland and good farmland isn't going down. Neither is the cost of a small, well insulated home outside of overheated markets. You have to live somewhere. The small house with features like a woodstove, solar panels, earth berm is like the hybrid of houses. The Mc Mansion, with cathedral ceilings in the far exurbs is the SUV. We're way overstocked with Mc Mansions. It's like the GMC dealership. Nobody's buying. Check out the toyota dealership. It's hopping. The broader housing market may be going, but the green market is just getting started.

[Leanan]

Cartoon from Time magazine:

[GreyZone]

Two comments:
1. People often fail to realize that earth bermed (or earth rammed such as Earthship design) homes using their own physical mass as part of passive solar driven heating and cooling are often cheaper or no more expensive to heat/cool in larger sizes than in small sizes. If you want a big home that's cheap to heat or which even costs nothing? Go earth bermed or even fully underground with just an exposed south face maximizing solar gain.
2. The unemployment numbers are deceptive. Those are claims per week. Nowhere in that article did they dare mention total claims active. That number would be in the millions, probably near 5-6 million if we are still around 5% unemployment, which I doubt.

[foodnotlawns]

I sure hope this means they stop bulldozing farmland NOW!!!

They don't appreciate the value of New England farmland -- good rainfall, good climate, the soil may be rocky and clayish but that can be fixed. THere is this idea that we don't need farms in New England -- how wrong they are!

[Revi]

New England farmland is mostly forestland. The good stuff has either been turned into house lots or is still being farmed. It grows great hay and great wood. I was thinking that the best investment you could make is in a few acres of woods, and an acre of good garden spot. You could live off of the food you grow, heat the house and live simply.

[sammybolthead]

Sadly, such is the case in Toronto and the golden horseshoe around the lake. It is proven to be some of the best farmland in Canada and it is nearly all paved over. My mother-in-law's subdivision used to be farmland until about 6 years ago, the rate of subdivision growth in her area is approximately 500 acres a year in development. Absolutely astonishing. I'm in the building industry and in 15 years have never seen anything quite like it. Except in the late 90s when they developed the farmland in Kelowna BC.

Wonder what we'll do with all the asphalt and building materials when we dig them up looking for arable land?

[Revi]

Chunks of concrete coulb be used to build walls. I don't know what we'll do with all that asphalt. It chips up pretty easily. Maybe it'll become the new version of the old stone wall. There will be asphalt walls all around the former parking lots. They will be nice, flat farmland with huge barnlike dead malls to keep the livestock in.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'C')hunks of concrete coulb be used to build walls. I don't know what we'll do with all that asphalt. It chips up pretty easily. Maybe it'll become the new version of the old stone wall. There will be asphalt walls all around the former parking lots. They will be nice, flat farmland with huge barnlike dead malls to keep the livestock in.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'S')econd problem, when making parking lots the normal practice is to scrape off the topsoil and sell it, then replace it with a solidly compressed gravle base. You might grow Alfalfa or some kinds of grass in it, but most crops will be out of the question.

[Revi]

All that work we put into building the suburban world is for naught, isn't it. There will be trees growing up through the asphalt pretty quickly. We have some Japanese Knotweed, bamboolike stuff, that chips up the asphalt and grows right up through it. The ailanthus, or tree of heaven, will grow anywhere it can get a foothold. All that unused sunlight will be harvested somehow. 1000 watts per square meter won't be wasted.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')xcept in the late 90s when they developed the farmland in Kelowna BC.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'I') guess they didn't like the smell of cow poop, and the noise from farm animals interrupted their quiet mornings sitting on their balconies.