We’ve come a long, long way together … so let me praise you….
As a 20+ year journalist with a decade of specialised property experience, I’ve seen and written about plenty of homes with amazing histories.
But it was particularly amazing to hear that the Melbourne home I grew up in sold under the hammer on Saturday for $1,268,500. This was only its third sale since its construction in 1962, and sales agents Jellis Craig in Eltham were asking for $1.1 to $1.2 million plus. One of my sisters, who still lives in Melbourne, was able to make it to the August 29 auction - the last weekend of winter 2026, no less - and told our family that there were about three to four bidders, and about 10 parties in total at the event.
With the latest Cotality figures showing Melbourne’s median house price is $920,432 and the city’s auction numbers in the past week almost 40% fewer than a year ago, I’m impressed by the sale - and not because of all the memories it holds for me and my family.
The interior of this property journalist’s childhood home in Melbourne is barely recognisable after undergoing a stylish renovation by its vendors. But plenty of memories remain, including that of her tradie dad constructing the entire second storey of the house in the mid-1980s. My sisters and I still remember playing in the wall and roof trusses stacked up in the backyard.
Then there’s the amazing ways the home has changed since I finally left it in 1998, although changes really began with my carpenter-builder dad constructing the entire second storey of the home in the mid-1980s, with the help of his mates. My sisters and I still remember playing among the roof and wall trusses, that were stacked in the backyard. My dad also built the separate workshop to the rear of the 702sqm block.
In another major change since leaving my childhood home 30 years ago, barely anyone in Melbourne had heard of my childhood suburb, about 25km to the north east of the CBD, when I was growing up. Now, the suburb of Montmorency (or as everyone calls it, Monty), is the place to be for excellent value growth and quiet family living.
As well as building the second storey of our house, the dad also built the separate backyard workshop, which remains to this day.
According to Smart Property Investment (SPI), Monty has experienced a 27.22% median price growth in the past five years alone. It has also undergone a 10-year average annual uptick of 5.23%, says SPI, bringing its median house price to $1.18 million. Yet my folks sold the home for just $219,000 in 1999, after buying it in 1978 for $37,000.
But as they told me a few years ago (and I later talked about this in an off-market article), they still found it incredibly hard to borrow even the $12,000 needed for their mortgage deposit.
“This figure was like $5 million to us – but it was like this for everyone,” Mum and Dad said.
In more major changes to the overall property market in the past 30 years, here’s another reason not to envy yours, or my, parents. Cash rates sky-rocketed in the late 1980s, before hitting Australia’s highest ever figure of 17.5% in 1990, while inflation was 8%. Along with these eye-watering figures came high unemployment, a global share market crash in 1987, and a national recession we "had to have" in 1990.
The bedrooms’ built-in wardrobes were built by my dad.
So, today’s 4.35% cash rate and 3.5% inflation? Just two drops in a very long and large ocean. Obviously, it’s not as simple, or black and white, as this but these figures are certainly something for today’s buyers to think about.
As I also talked about in another article, my tradie dad worked irregular hours, and my mum was basically a stay-at-home lady with four kids to boot. So decent money didn’t appear at our front door very often.
Nevertheless, Mum and Dad managed to fully repay their mortgage about 10-15 years after buying the Monty home. Along with the $219,000 sale of the property, they were able to buy their coastal NSW property in the same year for just $150,000 – with no property debts in sight. All of which was a very nice plus for Mum and Dad.
My family’s old downstairs playroom has been transformed into a chic master suite, complete with a walk-in wardrobe, that used to be our study.
Back to more recent history, and the latest vendors of my childhood house have transformed the interior into a property that no one in my family is now able to recognise (check out more photos of the home, plus a floor plan, in Jellis Craig’s ad copy). Our old playroom at the front of the home has become a very fancy master suite, with our former study now a walk-in robe. The downstairs kitchen and dining room, particularly the kitchen, have been completely updated as well.
So too have the upstairs bedrooms, although their built-in wardrobes are still the original ones constructed by my dad. The Harry Potter-type understairs storage area, complete with fantastic 1970s wallpaper, is also there.
It's safe to say this auction sale was very much a case of old memories die hard – if they die at all – for this property journalist and her family.
Happy reading!