My parents bought their house in 1979, for $33k. ~10 years later, when rates had lowered significantly, it was worth $150k.

Anecdotally, my dad complains about paying an interest rate in the teens for the house I grew up in. My parents paid $69K ($188K in 2022 dollars) for the house, which was about a year old. Zillow estimates the same house at $457K today. Obviously not all of the price increase is due to lower interest rates, but the house _was_ much cheaper, so even with a high interest rate, the mortgage was pretty affordable.

At that time, though, you needed about 20% down payment to qualify for a mortgage. So you weren't borrowing as much, and houses were smaller and cheaper. It was very difficult for many people to buy a house in those years.