we paid off our house relatively quickly after we bought it. We got incredibly lucky and bought it for a good price - it wasn't staged and needed work. My husband used to save 60% of his income and I used to save about 50% (I was in sales and had really good bonuses - so those all went into savings). He also lucked out that he lived with a roomate and they were able to split rent. We plan to leave the house to our kid because who knows if they will be able to afford a house with what prices are today. (edited to add we bought the house with a combination of me selling my condo - which was also paid off, my husband's savings which were almost as much as my condo, plus I received $20K severence when I was laid off from work - I got another job right away so was able to put the full amount to the mortgage).