True, but until recently it was very uncommon to save first to buy a house. This is because you could get a mortgage for up to 125% of the price of the house b

True, but until recently it was very uncommon to save first to buy a house. This is because you could get a mortgage for up to 125% of the price of the house bought and the interest on this loan could be fully deducted from income tax. And to worsen things, you were not obliged to pay back on a monthly basis, but after 30 years you cannot deduct interest anymore the bank can ask for their money back (in practice it is mostly no problem if you can still pay the interest) Now you can 'only' get a loan upto 100% of the price and need to at least save up for the extra costs (bank, notary, taxes) And you have to pay back a monthly amount to be allowed to deduct the interest paid from income tax. But saving up very large amounts, which is common in many other countries, still is not done by most people...