Suburbtrends Media Desk — The Stress Line
Suburbtrends Media Desk
The Cost-of-Living Desk

What the mortgage eats.

Set the interest rate. See where a mortgage on the typical home still fits under the 30% stress line — and how much of a pay packet it eats — across the eight capitals, suburb by suburb.

Mortgage interest rate
6.0%
3.0%8.0%
The angle

CapitalShare of suburbs where the mortgage stays under 30% of incomeTypical burden

How to read it: the bar is the share of a capital's suburbs where the mortgage on the typical (median) home stays at or under 30% of household income at your chosen rate; the right column is that capital's median burden — what the mortgage takes from a typical household, red once it clears 30%. Repayment assumes a 90% loan on the median price over 30 years, principal & interest. Income is ABS Census 2021 average household weekly income by SA2, indexed ×1.16 to 2026. Suburbs are SA2 areas; a current snapshot, not a time series. All blends houses and units by sale volume. Source: Suburbtrends; income ABS Census 2021.

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