In his strongest public statement to date about his future plans, President Neil L. Rudenstine said on Monday there is a 50 percent chance he will move to Princeton, N.J. when he steps down in June.

But Rudenstine--formerly the provost of Princeton University--said that although he has purchased a house there, he has not yet decided where to live.

"It shouldn't be read as, 'We're going back to Princeton,'" Rudenstine said. "We have not made up our minds about work or living. It's 50-50, Cambridge or Princeton."

In August, Rudenstine closed on a $840,000 residence in a wealthy residential community a few blocks from the Princeton campus. He discussed the purchase on Monday only after learning that it had recently been entered into the public record.

Rudenstine anticipates that he will leave his official University-owned residence sometime in June. In earlier interviews, he said he has looked for properties in Cambridge but has found prices to be prohibitive.

Rudenstine has leased the house to a family of five on a short-term basis since October. But he has built flexibility into the lease agreement should he choose to move into the house in June.

"We will leave when he returns, I assume after the school term finishes," said Rudenstine's tenant.

Rudenstine and his wife have not owned a home since selling another property in Princeton in the late 1990s.