As a fellow renter who has been doing the multiple houses in multiple years I can understand your spot. However, I cannot advise strong enough to sit tight for another year or two if you can. The good part is that you already have your stuff in storage so that dynamics of one more rental is not to tiresome for you. Also in 2 years you may indeed find that your money will go alot further. The nicer parts of Del Cerro have held up fairly well against the cycle downward but Del Cerro has no teflon wall around it and will follow the market just like other nice neighborhoods. I am not sure what your definition of considerably is. Also the composition of your purchase, (how much you will come in with using cash verses what you finance) is important. While I do believe we will see depreciation I also believe we will see higher interest rates as well. So given the numbers you stated above, given another year or two if you can bank another 50k perhaps, earn some interest on the 200k, and let prices slide a bit, even with higher mortgage rates you should enjoy more buying power and lower property taxes.
Also I am not sure how familiar you are with San Diego. Have you lived here a long time prior to coming back here? Is there a compelling reason you have decided on Del Cerro? It is a very nice area; I know it well and have friends there but I still would advice to rent if at all possible for another year or two so that you can get real familiar with the area.
