[imtringued]

>In 10 years, one ought to have paid off a house.

I agree but people have gotten used to constantly rising house prices and started depending on it to pay off their home. In an environment with rising house prices your best strategy is actually to avoid paying as much as possible. Low down payments and 30 year loans mean that if you spend $50K on a 2 million dollar house and it appreciates by 10% to $2.2 million you have received a 4x return on your investment. If the house price tanks by more than $50k your mortgage is underwater and because you never planned to repay the entire loan, you will have to apply for bankruptcy.