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I recall Dad getting phone calls from his mortgage company back in the 70's. They had bought their house in the 60's and had a rate around 3.5% and the caller wanted him to refinance. "What's the rate?" "Its a low-low 17%!" "No thank you."

The idea of a 17% mortgage is frightening.

And yet, buying a house back then at 17% mortgage would probably have been the best investment decision of your life.

To add some more specific data to my parent, from http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/:

Inflation from 1946-1980 (34 year period): 322.6% Inflation from 1983-2017 (34 year period): 145.9%

Don't confuse CPI with inflation.