[AnimalMuppet]

Depends on how you define "normal". My parents had a 4 7/8% mortgage on a house they bought in 1966. (The only difference is that they had a prepayment penalty. The 1970s and 80s taught lenders why they shouldn't put that in.)

So, depending on your time frame, the 70s and 80s were abnormally high, post-2008 was abnormally low, and 5%-ish is "normal". (I think, if you keep going back, 5% continues to be kind of normal, but I don't have the data in front of me.)

[delecti]

> Depends on how you define "normal"

I think the housing market has been too variable over the timespan when it has really existed (~100 years) for there to even be a "normal". I do think your guess of 5% for the short-term future is probably not too crazy though.