<i>I purchased two condos, living in one and renting out the other. That might sound pretty crazy for a guy fresh out of university</i><p>Raise your hand if 50% of your income at that age went into partying and having good times; I can't even remember what I did at that age :-(
I used to read Lee Lin's blog through Facebook -- very smart guy. I think at one point he designed a custom search on Zillow for condos that were commutable from Microsoft, and in the price range that their newly-hired engineers could afford.
I should have said <i>SOME</i> 2br townhouses in 2004 were selling for $120K, as in, the starter homes I wound up buying. The median near MSFT campus was about $180K.