There are things we think about every day, and some of them are pretty weird. But then there’s a whole other class of things that, weird or not, we almost never think about. Like, how do people in other countries buy houses? It turns out, one way they don’t buy them is with a phenomenally low, 30-year fixed rate mortgage. In fact, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is considered a U.S. anomaly, with most of the developed world having shorter term, variable rate mortgages as their only option (not to mention, most of them can’t deduct interest, either).