the generational and gender disparities are incredibly revealing," the report said.Around 55 per cent of borrowers surveyed experienced mortgage stress — a benchmark used to describe households that spend more than 30 per cent of their income on home loan repayments.But Richard Whitten, a home loans expert at Finder, cautioned that the mortgage stress metric is "more complicated" when applied to Australia's current housing market."I'd treat it as a benchmark figure rather than an absolute red line," Whitten told SBS News."It depends on factors like how much you earn, and what your household expenses look like In 2024, he co-authored a report examining housing affordability, which highlighted: "Normative housing affordability measures remain insensitive to factors such as household size, composition and formation, housing tenure, quality, and locational and neighbourhood characteristics." Rowley told SBS News he does not believe mortgage stress is a "good metric" in the Australian context as many households will choose to spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing."Considering it their most important expenditure item ..