If rent vs own is favorable next spring I plan to buy.

You might want to avoid spring and early summer. If you buy, make it fall/winter 2008 or fall 2009.

In Temecula, I’m seeing prices higher now than they were this past winter, artificially inflated by agents/sellers who seem to think that the increased spring activity is a sign of the bottom, and probably hoping to get lucky. I watched several properties sit for 4 months at $260k-ish, only to be bumped to $300k this spring. Still sitting, of course.