Housing costs high on the list of consumer anxiety concerns

Housing costs are the second highest factor influencing the cost of living for consumers, with the ‘cost of living’ factor itself remaining the top item on the NAB Consumer Anxiety Index.

Consumer anxiety was specifically higher for those who live in New South Wales or the ACT, lived in rural or bush areas and earned between $35,000 to $50,000.

Housing costs were cited as the second influential factor on living costs after utility costs. Transport costs, health and medical costs, education costs, financial commitments and food costs were listed as other factors.

Despite cost of living still topping the list, this is an improvement on the last quarter of 2013. Even so, nearly one third of respondents rated this with ‘high’ anxiety, while just one in seven responded with ‘very low’.

In New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and ACT, however, it was utilities that were cited as the worst factor. In South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania, housing costs topped the list. In Western Australia, food costs was seen as the most negative factor.

Job security concerns were also seen the grow, with 37% rating job security anxiety ‘medium’ or ‘high’, up from 2013’s last quarter result of 33%. This evened out with 36.5% rating it ‘very low’. This has seen the balance tip, with 40% in the last survey pointing to ‘very low’ anxiety around job security.