No one who owned a house 20 years ago had a 2.75% mortgage rate. That's the difference.
Artificially low*
Why should we look at a period 20 years in the past for predictions about the future? 20 years ago Facebook didn't exist nor did the iPhone. For the last 10 years rates have been below 6%. It seems a strech to call a decade "recent."
to be fair these are usually 30 year loans that we're talking about.