Thanks, everyone, for your comments.
Some really handy info.

I have played with online rent-vs-buy calculators before, but I just wanted to fiddle with the question from a slightly different angle.

Some more pondering:
First, assume the $1500/month apartment is roughly equivalent to a condo in the area, and condos in the area have HOA fees of roughly $300. So then the apartment would be roughly equivalent to a condo with a mortgage costing $1200/month. (Assuming no down payment, very simplistic, I know.)

Second, very roughly, each $100K on a standard 30-year fixed mortgage results in approximately $600/month in mortgage payments. (This is one rule of thumb I use when eyeballing the price of a place.) So this rent implies an “equivalent condo price” of $200,000– well below current RB prices but by the same token, above the price recommended by temeculaguy’s ratio rule listed above.

I notice also that the ratio rule (100/125/150) equates out to around 7 to 10 years’ worth of rent, FWIW.