should I buy or rent a house in california?

depends on how much money you have. if you can qualify for a loan. buying is always better. remember that no matter what people say. home prices never come down a lot. only a lil bit and they recover pretty soon. so buying is the way to go no matter what the price or location is.

I use http://www.HomePriceMaps.com to search for realty prices by zipcode and/or city. Also-if you don't see any data for your area you can email them your info and they will quickly post home data for your area and email you within a day or two. pretty convenient.