The math of buying a luxury condo in downtown JC isn't really mathing, right?

I'm about to make an offer on a condo. We're starting with an aggressive (but respectful) below-asking-price offer—fingers crossed it works out!

This whole process has got me thinking, though. The math of owning here doesn’t really add up. Property taxes are steep—$12-18K annually (unless you snag one of the rare tax-abated buildings, but those expire in the next decade anyway). Add in HOA fees of $500-$700 monthly, and you're looking at monthly carrying costs of $2K+/month. Meanwhile, you can rent a similar unit for $3K and change. So from a purely financial perspective, owning feels... not so attractive.

That said, I’m still going ahead with buying for non-financial reasons. But I’m curious—how do you all think about the trade-offs between renting and owning in a market like this? Did you also end up buying because of the emotional reasons? Or did the math of owning just looked better in the prior years?