Homeowner still has shocking $400k mortgage on home bought eleven years ago

This woman bought a home for about $400,000 – and eleven years later, she still has that much mortgage to pay off.

Michele Cherry is coming to terms with the brutal reality her $400,000 mortgage is the same amount she paid for the house a decade ago.

But even with her home loan debt well above the state average, the property conveyor and her partner, Anthony, have budgeted well enough to suit their lifestyle.

“I don’t have everyday coffees,” she said, “But I have been to Iceland this year, and we’re off to Africa in a couple of weeks.”

Michele Cherry bought a $400,000 home 11 years ago. Now, she and her partner Anthony are paying off a $400,000 mortgage. Picture: Nigel Hallett

When Ms Cherry bought her home in the Springfield Lakes area, the property was worth $400,000.

“Relative to then, it was quite normal, $400 grand,” she said. “I bought the house 11 years ago. It wasn’t $1 million then - it’s worth $1 million now.”

After years of inflation and rising interest rates, her mortgage remains at around $400,000.

“There’s certainly an amount of money that has been paid off,” she said. “As interest rates have changed, I may have only paid off a small amount of money. But the capital growth in the area has allowed my house to grow three times that original value.”

Ms Cherry and her partner pay around $700 a week in mortgage repayments. While the couple have been regularly meeting mortgage expectations, they struggled to keep up with rising interest rates due to personal illness, self-employment and the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Ms Cherry made sure when she was buying a house, she was buying within her means: keeping the mortgage repayment plan low, so she could live in her own home as the house grew in equity.

“I wanted to have surplus funds each week or month,” she said. “So when I bought, I bought lower than my maximum capacity.”

This has meant Ms Cherry is able to keep an expendable income, and has the opportunity to pay off her loan down the road or downsize with the equity she has accrued.

Homes in Ascot have the highest average of outstanding mortgage fees in Queensland. The state average is $297,851, while the average in Ascot is $1.387 million.

Exclusive data from mortgage specialist Digital Finance Analysts showed more than 20 Queensland suburbs have average outstanding mortgages of more than $500,000. Many of these are found in wealthier areas, but some previously affordable suburbs have risen by 13 to 22 per cent since 2023.

Queensland’s average mortgage is at $297,851, which is around 30 per cent of median home prices.

Buyers Agent Lauren Jones said she was seeing more people who are not couples pairing up to buy a home, to get into the housing market with a reasonable mortgage.

“I’m starting to see a little bit of FOMO in the market again, of people wanting to get in before interest rates drop,” she said.

While higher mortgages are often coming from the more expensive suburbs, Ms Jones said the people really struggling are those just starting out, and those who were not expecting interest rates to rise as high as they have.

“Older locations with older demographics with more money – these people have experienced high interest rates before. They know what they’re in for,” she said.

Ms Cherry is happy she’s able to keep the lifestyle she wants while paying a reasonable mortgage fee, slowly building equity in her home. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Ms Cherry said she felt sorry for people who were renting at high prices to live in homes that were worth much less a short while ago.

“If I was a young person now doing it again, all I would say to anyone is to just pay the minimum amount,” she said.

“Pay at the same frequency that you get paid … and it will come back to you, if you can just hang on, because interest rates recycle.”

Originally published as Homeowner still has shocking $400k mortgage on home bought eleven years ago