I was renting in California, but moved away in 2007 because prices were so unreasonable. I wanted to move somewhere cheaper, so I bought a starter home in North Carolina. Then when I saw how low the prices were in Arizona, I sold the NC house for a $25K loss and moved to Scottsdale and bought a short sale in October 2011 at the absolute bottom (after waiting about 5 months to get it all approved). Between the two houses there, and some elbow grease, I made $230K. Then the company I worked for got bought out, so I cashed in and moved away, back to a cheaper market.