To me the only thing that makes sense when considering buying a house is to buy in cash or make plans to pay down your mortgage as fast as possible.  It was eye opening when I did some numbers a while back (can&#x27;t vouch for whether this is still accurate today, but my hunch is it&#x27;s not far off).  If a person pays minimum monthly payment on a 30-yr mortgage (assuming certain interest rates) you ultimately end up paying approximately the cost of the house in interest over the life of the loan.<p>This may be obvious to some who are more familiar with finance, but I think it&#x27;s eye opening to the majority of people when they hear this.