When my lease comes up I'm gonna give some nice $700K+ vacant properties I've been eyeing a rental offer. Same math. I expect it to work. Paying their mortgage for a year is better than nothing for them. I'll continue this 'til the market hits bottom, then buy.
I think it totally depends on location. `In my city, the overall effect has been negative but that is almost exclusively in the “far out” parts of town no one wants to live in because its a 2-hour commute. We got our mortgage for the same as what we were paying down the street in rent (including taxes, insurance, etc.), and no one’s rent is going down despite housing price drops (not here anyway).
But in other cities the overall downturn is so significant I imagine there would be many ways to save by renting. Especially if $700,000 houses are sitting around empty! Dang!