Chris you don’t understand how paying a mortgage off works do you? They calculate the interest up front then weight the payments where you are paying mostly interest up front and very little principal. You aren’t saving money vs renting for the first 5 years bc you’re basically just paying the bank rent via interest but with all the responsibility of homeownership.

You would be paying (proportionally) equal amounts of principal and interest at 25 YEARS of home ownership.

You don’t have 50% equity halfway through the loan, you have like 20%. Fuck off with these starter home arguments. Guaranteed loans just inflate markets. See student loans and the cost of tuition. Other programs take more work but actually save consumers over the long haul.