I bought my first home in 1984 via a state-run first-time-homebuyer program at "only" 9.5% and I considered myself the king of the world for getting that rate.
The house was only $60K or so, which was not orders of magnitude greater than my salary at the time, so the payments didn't cripple me. I think my car payment was 14 or 15% as well.
Every time I see people begging and crying for cuts from current rates I just shake my head.
My wife and bought our first house for $170K, and put $10K down. Our rate was over 8%. We made $50K together, and we almost didn’t qualify for the loan. And that was just in ‘94. I too don’t get the whining about the rates being too high. I wouldn’t mind seeing my CD rates go up a little bit.