I'm stupid, willing to bite and am bouncing between yeah that's sarcasm and no he's serious.

In fact with interest rates going down, you got a better bargain than your parents and grandparents did!!"

Grandparents who built their own got the best price. But... the original mortgage for this home was for $38k at 18%, 5 years & 20 year amortisation period in 1982. That would mean this house could have cost someone ~$136,300 (principle + interest). before 2002. Eyeballing a graph tells you it cost someone at least $110k with renegotiating.

I bought the place for $140k just shy of 5% and paid it off in 10 years so that would mean this house cost me ~$170k (principle + interest) and my neighbours home sold for $250k. Yeah my numbers are larger but I definitely got the better deal.

You either pay the homeowner in principle or you pay the bank in interest. That's an underlying truth. Vancouver, Edmonton and Fort Mac not included. It'd be like winning the lotto today had you bought a house there in the 90's or even early 2000's.

You didn't pay more for that car or that cell phone.

Depends on which car you buy. A honda civic or toyota corolla are, without a doubt, x5 the car a 1992 cavalier were and x10 the car a pinto or gremlin could hope to be. But yeah that cell phone is a money pit.

A prime rib enough to feed a family with some leftovers for tomorrow night as well is going for $100.

Or you could buy the entire cow. Then your prime rib costs no more and no less than the ground beef you pull out of it.