"After two years of looking, which started before I decided I would leave the job, we thought we had to have something," Rudenstine said. "We

decided we should have some house, whether we ended up living in it or

not."

Since the time that Rudenstine began looking, the real estate market in Princeton has boomed. Local real estate agents say that in past four or five years, the price of housing there has doubled.

Rudenstine said he is unlikely to reach a final decision on his future plans until April.

He said he has considered a return to teaching English, though he is worried about catching up with developments in the field since he left full-time scholarship in 1968, four years after he got his doctorate.

Rudenstine also said he has many suitors in the foundation world--he served as executive vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for three years before accepting the Harvard presidency.