[quote=ybitz]I was actually referring to house price to rent ratio, not so much income/rent ratio (though that’s also an important metric). For example, one of the house I looked was renting for $2500/month, and on sale for $625,000, creating a ratio of 250. This is ignoring maintenance/property tax/other costs, but is easily to calculate for lots of properties.[/quote]

I would think 250 is terrible but I don’t know the historical number. 100 is investment grade so it will probably not readily achievable. I will settle for 150 but not much more than that.

In some sense, I think the insanity of the housing market in Spring 2009 could rival the peak housing bubble time…particularly in the areas that the housing price does not have 50%-off for-sale sign on.