Jeb would take the high rate on yesterday's prices, and his reasoning shows why "these rates are nothing" falls apart. A double-digit rate in an earlier era sat on top of a home price that was a small fraction of what the same house costs today. Jeb bought a home for a few hundred thousand dollars back then that would sell for several times that now. A high rate on a small principal can carry a far more comfortable payment than a low rate on a principal many times larger. The rate is only half the equation, and often the smaller half. When an older buyer says today's rates are nothing because they once paid 14 percent, the comparison teaches you nothing about your situation. Affordability is personal: your payment measured against your income, in your circumstances, today. Someone else's rate on a different price with different wages decades ago has no bearing on whether a home works for you. On the related grievance that one generation got an unfair deal: the oldest generation is almost always the wealthiest for a simple reason. Wealth accumulates across decades of earning, saving, investing, and compounding home values, and time does that work for anyone who stays in the game. Judge a purchase by whether the payment fits your life, and leave other people's eras out of the decision.