It's in Stockton near Univesity of the Pacific. Houses in the area rent like hotcakes, or so I'm told. I'm not in it to make money, though I wouldn't turn my nose up at it. Just one of the legs of being able to afford to retire is to not have a big mortgage payment. I figure that giving up some cash now for a good down payment is worth the return of having a monthly payment that is less than what I could rent a small apartment for.
I just refinanced my house and the payments are closer to $2k. If I sell it in 8 years I still need to live somewhere and prices aren't going to stay low forever (I hope not), so locking in a low payment now seems like the best thing to do.