She was nine years old, sitting cross-legged on the bare dining-room floor, rolling a softball back and forth with her sister.The sound of the ball on the polished hardwood echoed off empty walls."I realised then that this was actually achievable, and I wanted that," she said.She asked her parents to open her a savings account and she filled it with every cent she earned: from childhood chores to pocket money, paying off her maths degree and eventually securing a lucrative job with a mining company.By 27, Free had saved nearly $285,000.In an earlier age, this would be enough for a comfortable home, with change Others were bought by investors and marked for demolition.The maths she had studied so rigorously no longer applied to her reality."When I was a kid I was promised that if I did well in school, went to university, chose my degree wisely, got a good job, and saved my money, I'd have a home by now," she said.To a young, single woman trying to carve out a life near her job and family, the market felt less competitive than purely hostile.The equation from effort to reward was clouded.Australia's housing market has been less a roller coaster than a single, uninterrupted ascent for people like Ms Sobolewski.House prices have surged by more than 400 per cent since 2000, rising about 8 per cent per year