多么美好的日子啊...long gone...

When the bank manager was god
Author: Natalie Craig
Date: February 5, 2009
Publication: The Age (subscribe)

Maurie and Doreen Fabrikant\'s frugal beginnings in the 1960s housing market have helped their children pay their mortgages.
Maurie Fabrikant applied for his first home loan in 1962, hat in hand. Back then, mate, the bank manager was god — and if you didn\'t do the right thing by god, then no loan for you, he recalled yesterday.

Good manners and a sensible haircut would get you through the door — but you also had to prove that you could pay back the money easily.

My maximum loan repayments had to be no more than a quarter of my income … They wanted to make sure that they didn\'t lose.

Indeed, there seemed little chance of the banks losing on Mr Fabrikant, a junior engineer at the Government Aircraft Factories, and his wife, Doreen. Their loan was £1200, while Mr Fabrikant\'s income was £1300.

The couple bought a block of land in Noble Park. After paying the loan off in two years — at the bank\'s insistence — they borrowed another £3500 to build a house.

With a weekly income of about £25 and interest rates at about 5 per cent, Mr Fabrikant estimates he paid about £5 or 20 per cent of his income in mortgage repayments. His loan was about 2½ times his annual income. Today, a typical home costs about seven times the average annual income.

Mrs Fabrikant said she had never heard of mortgage stress until recently.

I just remember how marvellous it was that I could be given that money and be able to buy a house, she said.

But Mrs Fabrikant said her three adult children had found servicing a mortgage much harder. To help them, she and her husband sold their house for $320,000 and they lease it back. The money allowed two children to pay off their mortgages.

They\'re now paying my rent, which is a bloody sight less than their repayments on their mortgages, Mr Fabrikant said.

So is it tougher for their children than it was for them? Yes, Mrs Fabrikant said. Either that or they just want more.