Clearly your memory of the 90's is not as good as you think it is, memory does start to fail with old age - and that is not meant to be a patronising comment
Yes we had 18% interest rates for a few months in the very early 90's, as we were in recession in the very early 90's, things improved dramatically from 1992/3 and on
property stayed dead until 2000/01
And on the point of interest rates
a move from a normal base of around 10% to a relatively short period up to 18% on an average mortgage of $100k
is in dollar terms not that different from moving from a low 6.5% to a normal range of near 10% on and average $350k mortgage
in fact the latest move up may prove more detrimental as the peak to 18% in the early 90's was very brief, the current move up in interest rates is likely to be prolonged.
