I rented a beautiful 2BR/2BA condo in Rancho bernardo in 1996 for $800 per month. This was the bottom of the market before things picked up. They were one of the early condo conversion and were selling for about $130,000 in 1997. At the time HOA fees were about $150/month and a 5/1 ARM with 700+ fico scores was around 8%. There was no piggyback mortgages available and you had to pay PMI which ran about $125/month. Do the math and tell me this was breakeven.
