Buying a new townhome in San Jose - good investment?

[Sheeva R.]

Hi everyone,

I am asking this question for a family member who is thinking of buying a new construction in Northern San Jose. The purpose would be to maybe have it for retirement in a few years (or at the very least have a good investment for the future) and to rent it out in the meantime. The issue is that obviously properties in SV are extremely expensive and they will be taking out about 300k to put for downpayment. On top of that, the rent wont cover the mortgage so it will be cash flow negative for some time. The question is will the appreciation outweight all of that and I don't know the answer to that. 

What do you all think? I guess the question is with that downpayment money are there better investment options? Being 2k cash flow negative every month seems hard to stomach but again I don't have a lot of experience in this area.

Thanks for all the insight!