Some narrowing is possible, but we do not expect Orange County's buy-versus-rent gap to return to the old, close spreads. The gap has not always been this wide. In the early 2010s, buying and renting in Orange County ran much closer together, especially with a reasonable down payment. One of us bought an entry-level condo decades ago at a monthly payment only modestly above nearby rents, and an FHA buyer in that era could sometimes own for little more than they would pay a landlord. The spread has blown out since, and OC is now a genuine outlier on the buy-versus-rent gap because prices have climbed so far relative to rents. If rents, prices, and rates realign, the premium can improve somewhat from wherever it sits. That is the realistic version of normalizing, and it is a long way from a return to those early-2010s spreads. Nobody can promise where prices, rents, or rates go, so waiting on a full reset that may never arrive is a risky plan. If you are weighing buying versus renting in a high-premium market, run the actual numbers on your specific situation and time horizon. That is what the free Roadmap conversation is for: about 20 minutes where we run your real numbers.