I am NOT a financial planner or giving financial advice. BUT, what is your departure time frame? It seems to me to be a VERY bad time to sell a house! We had to come back to the USA for some time. Not to SoCal so we could not move back into our house. So, we bought another one here. We just picked up a nice (new in 2005) 2,500 Sq Ft home. The deal was so good, the payments are LESS than renting 2 bedroom apt would be.

And HAY, just in case you are looking, it will be for sale in about 4 years, after the crunch and when prices will be better.

Greg