Your calculations are correct but was the 180k the recorded sale back to the bank or the price to a new buyer? Many times the recent low sale is the repo of the 1st mortgage and in reality many are leveraged with seconds and helocs. If you could actually get it for 180k then it makes sense but that is 35-40% less than what it was when it didn’t make sense. The regular posters don’t believe that R/E needs to cost the same as a nice dinner for it become fundamentally sound, just back to the numbers you quoted. Now if that young couple makes 30k a year and finances it with a loan that will blow up in a few years it doesn’t make sense for them but it will make sense for someone who can and is easily paying for and is happy with their current 1 br at $1050. It is at a 170x rent multiplier, still too high for a prudent investor as a rental but it’s not too bad.