I have a friend who bought a condo recently. We did our best to tell him to just walk away (lose the deposit $), but he wouldn't listen. He thinks he's only going to be there for 2-3 years, then he's going to rent it out and make $. His mortgage payments are like 3x rental income.
This was his first purchase and I think his wife pushed him into it. It got to the point where if we said anything more, I think the friendship would've been over.
So, yeah, the elephant was in the room, but you can only point at it so many times before the other person gets pissed off.