You can trigger compliance effects with a can of soda. Of course there needs to be a correspondence in magnitude, but it's not really about the absolute amounts.
Rents have been skewing much higher than mortgage costs for some time. I'd guess it's 2-3 mo. of rent, max. In silicon valley it might be 1-2mo.
But people often don't think rationally that way (and definitely not all the time). A large lump sum may seem bigger than it actually is. Which is why sales folks often try to peanut butter the costs over a range ("it's the cost of one coffee a day for a month!")
$2500 a month is 30K. The average warehouse worker at Amazon is around $25K (1), so the temptation might be there for them. For engineers, that amount is not likely to be considered.
$5,000 isn't really lots of money; it's probably about six months of mortgage payments in an average town.
On a 25-year mortgage that doesn't make much of a dent.
Better to keep grumbling, keep earning and keep a roof over the family.