Every indication is that the real estate market is in a downtrend, with no immediate end in sight.
Given the overall debt crisis and the amount of highly-leveraged speculative real estate that could come on the market in a real credit crunch, we may be seeing only the beginning of a prolonged bloodletting in California real estate. Even if things get no worse than they presently are in Texas, that's still quite a way from California's present situation. Conserving cash is the primary motivation. Not wishing to buy into a bear market in real estate is a secondary consideration. Even if you reject both of these rationales, however, I still think we'd be well served by leasing rather than buying simply on the standpoint that Autodesk is a software company, not a real estate company.