Check out my Tuesday City Talk column about last Thursday’s grand opening, for which a number of units on the 12th floor were open.

I last wrote about Drayton Tower here on the blog over two months ago in a post about the benefits of greater residential density downtown.

Here you’ll just see a few photos that I took on the 12th floor and one I took from the ground.

People love to hate Drayton Tower, but it’s an architectural gem — of sorts — and it’s a bold and fascinating example of post-WW II architecture right smack in the middle of Savannah’s Historic District.

Pretty swank, in my opinion.

Click for larger versions. I was obviously there near dusk.

With average home prices in Savannah and in many other cities down pretty dramatically from their peaks, buying a home is looking better and better.

Zillow has come up with the “breakeven horizon” for 257 metro areas. That’s the point at which purchasing a home is more economical than renting an equivalent property. The calculations assume 30 year mortgages and average upfront costs of buying a home.

Here in Savannah, the breakeven horizon is down to 2.7 years.

From Zillow’s In Nearly 60 Percent of U.S. Metros, Buying Beats Renting in Three Years or Less:

Below are the breakeven horizons by metro and cities within metros for Q3 2012. 152 out of 257 metros (or 59%) have a breakeven horizon of less than three years. Among the 30 largest metros, New York metro has the longest breakeven horizon at close to 5 years, making it a better place to rent for many people. Detroit has a breakeven horizon of 1.7 years, the lowest horizon among the top 30 metros. Therefore, buying in Detroit ends up being more advantageous than renting for many consumers. Search within your metro to find your cityâ€s breakeven number.