Only twice that? In Sydney, median house prices are north of $1,000,000 now, and in my unsexy and until recently very-working-class inner west suburb the median is tickling $2M.

(Yes, it's completely insane, and even more insane is that nobody else seems to find it insane...)

Really? I would consider Adelaide a much easier place to afford to buy property. It has not really seen as high or as long period of price increase as the eastern state cities.

But I guess that's the case everywhere in Australia. The places where a young person wants to live (young / without children) is not somewhere which they can afford.

I've visited Tasmania a few times and LOVE Launceston. Would move there in a heartbeat, but the trick is, if things don't work out, we could never, EVER afford to move back here. I have older parents etc. still living here, so can see that we might have to either stay, or work out some sort of cunning plan to try and share time between the two locations.

$215,000 wouldn't even buy you a 1 bedroom squat here. I could probably sell my place and buy a BIG place in Launceston, but like I said, if it ever came that we had to move back here to care for elders, it won't be possible at all.

Hey give it a go renting, I moved to Tassie for a year and that turned into 5. Hobart is awesome and before I bought my place 7 minutes from the CBD for 330K, I used to rent a place for 250 a week. And now my mortgage payments are still less than what I was paying for a townhouse in Canberra. Locals think its expensive, but play the long game with Tassie and things are looking good.