Since January, federal funding cuts have struck far and wide across a number of local, state and federal programs that tackle a variety of issues. And while the local “Choice in Aging” program in Contra Costa County, California, would be directly impacted if cuts happen, that’s not stopping people there from advocating on behalf of area seniors.

Recently profiled in local news outlet Contra Costa News, the county — located on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area — the program is pressing on despite a “reorganization” plan for the Administration for Community Living (ACL) published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the direction of the U.S. DOGE Service.

Debbie Toth, the president and CEO of the Choice in Aging program — which provides services that promote independence for older and disabled people — told the outlet that the plan would be “devastating” for the group’s efforts. These include an expansion of its focus on aging in place with a dedicated educational and resource facility.

“The elimination of ACL means we lose priority, expertise, uniformity, grants and so much more,” she told the outlet. “It’s also a clear statement that elders and people with disabilities living in community isn’t a priority, which is devastating and infuriating.”

Adding to that is the looming possibility of cuts to Medicaid programs, putting home- and community-based services (HCBS) at serious risk. Toth said that when cuts to Medicaid come, such services are often among the first targets.

This complicates the efforts the organization is making to provide additional services for older residents. These include the construction of a dedicated aging-in-place campus that features senior housing along with services and joint classes for seniors and preschoolers.

The fundraising campaign for its construction is roughly 50% complete, Toth told the outlet. The campus aims to give community seniors access to the information and resources they need to age where they want, which is often within the tight-knit community itself.

“The whole point of the Aging in Place campus is to create a model that will be replicable that allows older adults and adults with disabilities to age in the community, in their setting of choice,” Toth told the outlet. “Not in a skilled nursing facility, and have the social, spiritual and health services that they need, all at their front door.”

Other programs aiming to provide aging-in-place support have similarly reckoned with cuts to their resources.

In Massachusetts, for instance, the state’s Enhanced Community Options Program (ECOP) will cap its total enrollment figure at 7,322 despite currently having more than 9,000 beneficiaries.

The area’s high-end homebuyers, many of whom work in tech, don’t take market fluctuations well, largely because their wealth is typically generated through IPOs and stocks. If the stock market is in a tizzy, they won’t be buying real estate.

A former Douglas Elliman agent has withdrawn a lawsuit that sought to recoup $1.6 million in clawbacks from deals that closed after she left the brokerage.

New York and Miami agent Holly Parker claimed she’s owed commissions on deals that were pending following her exit from Douglas Elliman. In the withdrawal, filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Parker disclosed that the firm wants to arbitrate the claims rather than litigate them in court.

The Real Deal was first to report the news.

Parker made the move to Compass in February after more 20 years with Elliman. She filed the suit in April, saying that she was owed a 40% commission on 16 deals. She claims in the complaint that Elliman was angry over her decision to leave.

The parties signed an independent contractor agreement upon her joining the firm, but according to Parker, she signed side letters in 2020 and 2022 that formalized her right to commissions if she left the company prior to 2025. This documentation should override the original agreement, she argued.

In addition to the clawback amount, she sought damages of $385,540.

According to the RealTrends Verified 2025 Team Rankings, the Holly Parker Team closed 91 sides in 2024 for a sales volume of $348.5 million, good for an average sale price of $3.8 million.

The lawsuit is one of many headline-grabbing developments at Elliman.

In May, Anywhere Real Estate made an unsolicited offer to acquire Elliman that valued the brokerage at more than $4 a share.

That followed a period of internal turmoil among Elliman’s leadership staff. Longtime Douglas Elliman Realty CEO Scott Durkin was fired just days after parent company CEO Howard Lorber announced his retirement.

Lorber admitted to having intimate relationships with two company brokers, and shareholders called for his compensation to be cut following accusations of sexual assault against former Elliman agents Tal and Oren Alexander.

Aspiring home buyers will need to earn almost twice as much as they did at the start of the Covid pandemic to afford a house or a unit in most Aussie cities, a new study has revealed.

A Canstar’s analysis has exposed the minimum annual household income needed to avoid mortgage stress when purchasing a home, with the staggering figures eclipsing the amount most people earn.

While the data didn’t consider stamp duty or any other concessions that may be available to buyers, it did take into account RBA’s lending rate for new customers: 2.93 per cent in May 2020, and 5.75 per cent in May 2025 – based on the most recent figure available at the end of March 2025, with a 0.25 percentage point cut applied.

Here’s what the data revealed about your state.

QUEENSLAND

Queenslanders need to earn around $100,000 more a year to afford a typical home than before the pandemic boom.

The staggering pay rise places Brisbane just behind Sydney in terms of the extra income required per household since Covid-19.

Canstar’s analysis shows an income of $171,862 was needed for a median-priced house in Greater Brisbane in May 2025, compared to $72,628 in March 2020 — a $99,234 increase.

For units, $120,490 was required today, up from $52,164 pre-pandemic.

At a suburb level, Canstar’s research revealed nearly 50 Queensland locations where the difference in household income had ballooned by $200,000 or more.

Coastal and inner-city hotspots led, with buyers in Surfers Paradise needing a whopping $481,122 more per household.

Minyama, Sunshine Coast would require an income boost of $481,122, and $310,417 to buy in New Farm, Brisbane.

Read the full story here.

New house price predictions put the median price in Brisbane past the $1m mark by 2030, with units expected to be a more affordable entry choice for most new buyers then. Picture: Sophie Foster,

VICTORIA

Much like Queensland, the average Melbourne buyer will need nearly $100,000 extra a year to afford the same home they could have bought in 2020.

The figures show a typical household in greater Melbourne must now earn almost $160,000 to afford a median-priced house – a $61,000 increase since 2020.

In blue-chip areas like Toorak, Brighton and Malvern, the income jump is even more dramatic.

Even assuming a 20 per cent deposit, buyers now need to earn hundreds of thousands more.

In Toorak, where the median house price is $3.85m, households must earn over $900,000 a year, $290,000 more than in 2020.

In Brighton East, that figure is $490,000, up by more than $200,000.

Malvern buyers now need over $700,000, compared to just over $500,000 in 2020.

Even once-accessible areas like Ferntree Gully have seen a $66,000 jump in required income, pushing the new threshold above$162,000.

In Melbourne’s middle ring, affordability is also slipping.

Households now need nearly $280,000 in Bentleigh East, close to $260,000 in Box Hill South, and more than $312,000 in Glen Waverley.

Read the full story here.

Source: Canstar

NEW SOUTH WALES

Home seekers wanting an average Sydney house will need to have boosted their income by $150,000 a year just to have kept pace with the incredible property price rises since Covid.

With Sydney’s median price at about $950,000 in 2020, Canstar indicated that buying a typical house was affordable for a couple or individual back then with a pre-tax income of about $145,000 a year.

However, cracking the house market in north shore suburbs Crows Nest and Lane Cove now requires a yearly income of roughly $300,000 higher than in 2020, while in many Harbour-suburbs the difference is $500,000.

This was for buyers with a standard loan rate and 20 per cent deposit who wanted to avoid “mortgage stress” – spending more than a third of their gross income on loan repayments.

Luxe areas Bellevue Hill and Dover Heights led the nation for the biggest changes since Covid, with the income needed to afford a median house up $883,000 in the former and $720,000 in the latter.

Even apartments in suburbs known as more affordable Sydney enclaves demanded wage rises that few Sydneysiders could match.

Buyers needed to earn about $30,000-$50,000 more per year than they did in 2020 to afford units in Penrith, Parramatta, Punchbowl, Seven Hills, Toongabbie and many others.

Read the full story here.

Home buyers looking to buy in Toorak now need almost double the income they did five years ago.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Things aren’t looking up in South Australia, where the average home buyers now needs an income of $154,484 to afford a house – $90,020 more than five years ago.

Meanwhile, those in the market for a unit will need an income of at least $106,480 – $62,341 more than what buyers would have paid in 2020.

The situation gets even worse in Adelaide’s more affluent suburbs, including Unley Park, Medindie, Glenelg, St Peters, Tusmore, where buyers need to earn over $200,000 more than in 2020 to crack the middle of the market.

Read the full story here.

Homes are becoming near impossible to afford for the next generation of buyers, including Adelaide University Law student Grace Hullah. Picture Mark Brake

TASMANIA

In just five years, the income needed to pay the mortgage on a typical Hobart house has doubled.

And in some suburbs, a six-figure increase is required just to keep pace with rising costs.

Following the most recent property market boom, and peak of 2021, Hobart and Tasmania recorded a number of years when prices were flat or decreasing. But this was not enough to offset the difference in income required to buy a median-value house.

In 2020, the minimum gross annual household income required to buy greater Hobart’s median value home ($505,000) was $67,546.

Today that figure has surged to $131,698.

In greater Hobart, the smallest difference between 2020 and 2025 requirements was houses in Chigwell, where $39,786 extra income was needed.

The next smallest difference in income was Gagebrook ($41,088), Bridgewater ($41,676), Risdon Vale ($45,338) and New Norfolk ($46,875).

The largest difference was in Sandy Bay, a $119,922 increase, followed by Richmond (107,548), Tranmere ($107,258), Sandford ($87,851), and Taroona ($80,112).

Read the full story here.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

If you were hoping to find a bargain in the NT, you’re sure to be disappointed.

Even Australia’s most northern state has seen a massive jump in house prices, with the average salary needed to afford a house eclipsing $106,000 – almost $47,000 more than five years ago.

Units may prove a more affordable option.

According to Canstar, the average income needed to afford a unit is Darwin is $68,185 – with homebuyers now needing to make $28,059 more than they did in 2020.

Read the full story here.

The post Shock salary you now need to buy a home in Australia appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Territory homebuyers need to earn almost $47,000 more a year to buy a typical Darwin house than they did five years ago, however that figure is less than half of what Sydneysiders need to bring home to lock down a house.

Analysis by Canstar determined increases in property prices and interest rates meant a household needed to now earn $106,480 a year to afford an average-priced house in Darwin, compared to $59,520 in 2020.

In the past five years, the median house price in Darwin increased from $445,000 to $570,000, while the average interest rate on a home loan went from 2.93 per cent in 2020 to 5.75 per cent in 2025.

In the unit Darwin market, the average cost of a property was $300,000 in 2020 compared to $365,000 in 2025.

Darwin unit buyers now need to earn $68,185 for a typical unit, while pre-pandemic that figure was $40,126.

Darwin property agent Kerri-Ann Laurence, of Laurence Real Estate, said considering everything from eggs to electricity had gone up in the past half-decade, it was no surprise property prices had, too.

“Everything cost more than it did in 2020,” she said.

“But compared to other capital cities, Darwin is still terrific buying.

“If you’re looking to move in, you’ll avoid high rents by buying (a Darwin home), and if you’re looking for investment, you’re getting among the highest yields in the country.”

The unit at 13/8 Finniss St, Darwin City, is for sale for $349,000. Picture: realestate.com.au

Ms Laurence said Darwin property priced below $500,000 was currently attracting strong interest.

“I’ve got a unit for sale at the moment for $349,000 and there has been massive demand for that,” she said.

“Market conditions are better now than they’ve been in the past 10 years.”

At a suburb level in the NT, Nightcliff saw the greatest jump in income needed to service the home loan on a typical house, up $95,673 in the past five years to $178,400, based on a median price of $955,000.

Next was Stuart Park, where a household needed to earn $82,799 more a year to afford an average house, followed by Girraween, where the annual income needed jump $77,334.

The Canstar analysis, based on median home prices, loan amounts and monthly loan repayments, found the Darwin house market required the lowest annual income of any capital city.

Sydney had the highest income requirement at $272,737, followed by Brisbane ($171,862), Melbourne ($159,719), Adelaide ($154,489), Perth ($148,604), Hobart ($131,698) and Darwin ($106,480).

When it came to units, Sydney was once again at the top with a household needing to earn $149,071 a year to buy a standard property.

Brisbane was second ($120,490), then Melbourne ($112,084), Adelaide ($106,480), Hobart ($100,782), Perth ($99,007) and Darwin ($68,185).

The home at 10 Koolama Ct, Karama, is for sale for offers over $550,000. Picture: realestate.com.au

The latest PropTrack Home Price Index revealed the median dwelling price in Darwin increased 3.78 per cent year-on-year in March to sit at a fresh peak of $519,000.

REA Group senior economist, Eleanor Creagh said this was the greatest annual price growth the Darwin market had experienced since mid-2022.

“Darwin had previously underperformed compared to other capital with subdued growth and even decline,” she said.

“The recent upswing reflects a bit of a catch up after a period of softer growth.”

Canstar director of research Sally Tindall said the “astonishing” spike in income required to enter the market across most Australian capitals risked “shutting people out”.

“It creates this divide between those already in the market and those who are struggling to land a foot on the property ladder,” she said.

“Fundamentally, the issue facing first-home buyers across the country is that prices are too high and their wages can’t keep up.”

Ms Tindall said insufficient housing supply and the equity available to upgraders were key factors behind rising prices.

“It’s not an even playing field,” she said.

“Very few people have had the kind of pay rises needed to keep pace with the market.

“For most people, the only way they’ve kept up is because they already own property.”

CHANGE IN INCOME NEEDED TO BUY A DARWIN HOME

(SOURCE: Canstar)

The post Revealed: Pay packet needed to buy a home in Darwin appeared first on realestate.com.au.