The problem there is no good alternative to the death-grip (mortgage). If you rent your payment can continue to rise and you are at the mercy of the landlord as to what you can do with the property you rent. After 30 years of rent you have a pile of receipts. After a 30 year death-grip you own the property. My house was built in 1939, it’s still standing.

The best you can do is attack your mortgage with additional payments, of course, that's when you can least afford it.

I retired at 55 and worked at H&R Block for 7 years as a part time, to pad my retirement. The years the feds offered $10,000 refundable 1st time home buyer's tax credit, I visited all the local realtors with a simple idea. Explain to their qualifying clients that the best use of the $10,000 was to plow it right back into their mortgage, in lieu of a better investment. The worst thing would be to squander the windfall on a new car. I believe interest rates were around 5 percent at the time. $10,000 applied to a new 30 year loan at 5 percent would save them $34,677.44 in interest payments.