Roughly two months ago, Ms Alexander was informed by her real estate agent that her landlord intended to sell the property her family of four have been living in for two-and-a-half years.

"When we were first told the landlord would be selling, it didn't both me too much," Ms Alexander said.

With a deadline to be out by January 7, Ms Alexander ha begun the house hunt, but with every rental in Wagga over-subscribed with applicants, she is still no closer to knowing where she will be living next month.

"At every house inspection there are 30 to 50 people there and within a day, the place is already leased," Ms Alexander said.

"We have to be out a week after Christmas, [so] we're not going to have a Christmas this year. It's just horrible timing."

Despite her part time job and her husband's full-time work, the family are still struggling to be able to find a home.

With two daughters settled into schools in Wagga, they are hoping their eventual move will not mean uprooting their entire lives.

"The stressful this is that my children are in year 10 and year 5, I have a good job here that I've been in for a year," she said.

"My mental health has not been good. I'm pre-occupied at work and at home I'm surrounded by my life in boxes."

Amid the desperation, the family turned to Gumtree in the hopes of securing a private rental. But, Ms Alexander said, she was met by scammers and time-wasters.

She eventually took down her advertisement after she garnered an enormous amount of cyber-hatred.

In response, a spokesperson for Gumtree affirmed Ms Alexander made the right decision to avoid sending bond payment prematurely.

"As a community marketplace, the safety and security of our users is our main priority and we encourage users to take precautions when trading online," the spokesperson said.

"It's important that tenants take precautions and we encourage our community to always avoid paying bond or rent for a property before it has been viewed, and check that the real estate or landlord is legitimate before sending any money."

The Alexander family's exhaustive struggle to find a home is unfortunately not unique.

Anglicare's Wagga-based senior co-ordinator in children and family services, Jasmine Woodland, told The Daily Advertiser there have been a lot of similar stories this year.

"The market is great in Wagga if you're an investor but as a renter, it's a real struggle," Ms Woodland said.

"We've seen a lot more families coming in this year for emergency relief."

Many of these families, Ms Woodland said, are first-timers who have found themselves unable to pay rent or forced out of the housing market unexpectedly.

The service are expecting even more traffic through their doors during their traditional Christmas busy period.

"We definitely see an increase [at this time of the year], but we've been seeing a lot more this whole year," Ms Woodland said.

"Wagga is a transient place, this is a hard time of year to be finding somewhere to live. Especially in January, there's a lot more coming in [to Wagga] than going out.

"There are waiting lists for houses and we just don't have enough."

The Housing Industry Association's Tony Balding told The Daily Advertiser it is likely the city's housing troubles have been amplified by the pandemic.

Put simply, with increased interest from tree-changers moving to Wagga and the Riverina, demand for housing is outstripping the supply.

"It's caught people by surprise but COVID has put pressure on [housing] demand," Mr Balding said.

"Everyone has been caught out, we didn't expect there would be a residential and building boom at the moment."

To alleviate the problem slightly, Mr Balding is calling on a quicker turnaround for new developments.

But, given the delays required to ready a property for a dwelling, he doesn't expect there to be much change in the next year.

"It takes about 12 to 15 months to get land ready to build on and that time period hasn't changed," he said.

"There's a lot that needs to be done before a house can go up and I know a lot of developers are looking to accelerate that process.

"I'm hearing that a lot of people are even buying houses site unseen, they're just desperate to get into housing."

Yet even as the industry looks to capitalise on the building boom, for families like the Alexanders are left in the lurch.

"It's been a bad year and it has for everyone in some way I think," Ms Alexander said.