You get Easy access to the city, pubic transportation, and Kendall (Now home to east coast R&D for Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and soon Facebook). Increased likleyhood that values will rise (north point expansion, lack of high end residential units. And right off the bat it’s cheaper than renting (2 BR’s are going for $3500 /mo!!!) before you event count your mortgage interest deduction.

Best building right now (in my humble opinion) for value, location, and estimated appreciation looks like Thomas Graves Landing / Canal park.

Not a lot of units are on the market there. The killer features are free parking for your guests (which is huge) only 6 units per elevator stop (keep track of this number, it’s a good indicator of how long you’ll be waiting to get to your car / outside in the morning and how many people are coming and going outside your door), outdoor pool and river views. The main downside is the that the building is 25 years old, but on the flip side, that means the condo association is also 25 years old and has the reserves / maturity to show for it.