I’m not too surprised – while I think the prices are still too high, it’s got to be looking fairly attractive now that prices have fallen.

I think we can all agree CV is a very high demand area.

Renting a 2 bedroom unit in that area will cost you ~$2,000/mo. Roughly $24,000/yr.

With a ~$400,000 sale price, 20% down, 6.5% fixed the mortgage payment is going to run ~$2,025/mo. Even with a lower down payment, we are still in the ~$2,200/mo range.

Tax break, HOA, insurance get pretty close to being a wash give or take a small amount.

I guess it depends on how much you think the units will eventually sell for. If they fall another 20% their selling price would be around ~$320,000. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t and who knows how long it will take or what bailouts will take place. Either way, your rent is costing you $24k/yr.

Personally I wouldn’t buy one, but the #s aren’t that horrible unless I’m just missing something here.