Well it's also unrealistic to buy a house for $750K in Mountain View. I think his point was that IF the house went for $750K, you could reasonably expect rent t

Well it's also unrealistic to buy a house for $750K in Mountain View. I think his point was that IF the house went for $750K, you could reasonably expect rent to be around $3K. That seems right to me-- a 1BR in SF sells and rents for about those prices. As for having 250K in the bank-- if the house costs $1M, you have to make a down payment. In the mid-2000s, that may have been a smaller percentage, but these days I think 15-20% down is not unheard of.