Prudent folks still make mistakes (and movielover sounds very prudent, I mean he’s here, right?). To be honest, I’m hard pressed to believe that there are places out there right now that can beat what you can find in the rental market.
And that’s without factoring in any possibility of further depreciation. If a $200K condo depreciates 3% a year, that’s $500 a month (but you won’t be throwing money down the drain on a rental, yippee!)