Joe and I are struggling a bit right now with what housing decision we should make, as well. We're going to attend some classes on first time hime buying and if we let them yell at us about our credit history and let them assist us in putting together a budget, they'll give us grants that could be up to $17,500 for purchase, rehab, and downpayment assistance. Since the move, the credit has gone a little tits up what with the no income for almost 3 months. If we decide to buy, we'll have a higher interest rate until we can fix the credit and refinance. We might (probably would) buy my grandparents house for around $100k.
OTOH, if we find a cute place to rent for a year, fix out credit, get things paid off, and save some $$, we could buy in a year - year and a half, get a better interest rate, and maybe a nicer house.
The housing market out here is bad. In July alone there were 30+ houses in my parents town that were foreclosed on. The number of foreclosures are staggering in Washtenaw County.