This broke my brain a bit. Chart shows a typical $500K mortgage at 8% fixed. You’re mostly paying interest for decades. Equity only kicks in the last 7–10 years.

Total paid: ~$1.2M. Interest alone: ~$700K.

I get its pros but levering up into an illiquid asset in a post-ZIRP world .. ??

Pls help me make sense why this is sold as the safe and very normal thing to do.

why it is sold 
1/ as safe = because you can't runaway with it 😃 
2/ normal = a lot of people make a lot of money on you doing that