I graduated law school in 91 at the height of the first Bush recession, spent a year looking for a job and supported myself with my typing skills as a temporary secretary. It was pretty brutal for a number of years.

I saw the coming inflation last year and wanted to move but was unwilling to pull my 11th graders out of their current school before graduation. Dec 31, 2021 I signed a contract on a house under construction in SC (getting out of NJ!!!) and got approved for a mortgage at 3.5%. Unfortunately due to the awesome supply chain problems the builder couldn't/wouldn't give a closing date until mid April and I couldn't lock in the mortgage. When I finally could, I'm now at a 5.1% rate :(. On the upside, I've already got 2K of gains in the house as the appraiser valued it at 2K over the contract price. Granted my 5.1 is still better than your 9%, but is still ouch compared to where it had been.