Mortgage interest paid vs. GDP -- Yikes!

Every once in a while, I stumble across an odd statistic -- something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else. That's the case today. Bloomberg just published an item on the amount of mortgage interest paid in Q3 vs. Gross Domestic Product. It turns out we spent a whopping $625 billion in mortgage interest last quarter, the most ever in nominal terms and the most ever in relation to GDP (4.72%).

These figures aren't exactly a surprise, of course. I just think they speak volumes about the broader problem with the U.S. economy -- growth has been extremely dependent on a massive run up in home prices and a related surge in mortgage debt. The only question now is, "How severe will the fallout be?"