As Muslims, our views should never change in regards to the things which are explicitly stated as halal or haram. When it comes to usury, Muslims are not the only ones who see the bad in it. Usury has been condemned by many different groups of people throughout history. There is no good in it. In regards to today, yes, its more prevalent and it is not just loan based. Everyone will have to evaluate their own lives and see what works for them as well as how it applies to their geographic location in terms of whether there are systems that can support a non interest based way of living. It's important to explore all our options as well as make changes within our own lives in order to implement them.
For example, in the US, there are lots of states where land is cheap. People can buy land for cheap and live on that land. You can have a camper style house, cabin, tent, or whatever it is. There's a lack of convenience in it but at least you would not have to pay spend the next 20-30+ years trying to pay it off. Not all of these places are out in the mountains in the middle of no where. Many of these places are close to towns/cities that have the basic necessities. You can also become more self sufficient and provide for yourself by living off the land (small scale farming).
There's also the option of "rent-to-own". You pay rent at a fixed amount until you pay off whatever the agreed amount is. There may be some limitations on this in regards to interest though. Generally, if you miss a payment(s), there might be some interest involved. This might sound like an obvious, but for legal reasons, it's always important to go through and understand the paperwork whenever you get involved in this. Verbal agreements do not hold up in court and if you are allowed to miss x amount of payments interest fee because the property owner said so, they may change their mind later on.
Even if you go the rent only route, that's still better. You may never "own" the property, but there are some conveniences that can come with that. You can do short or long term leases which means you can stay for as long as its convenient to you. Building maintenance and other amenities are typically provided. While renting, you can slowly put money to the side until you have enough money saved up for a cheap house somewhere or have enough to cover for a larger down payment. With enough cash on hand, you could make agreements with a home seller that you offer the large sum of cash as a down payment and then do "rent-to-own" the rest of the way there. That's probably less likely to happen in most larger sized areas here, but I wouldn't completely rule that out.
Just some things to think about.
