Thanks for the advice guys. I'll leave the funds alone, and possibly only borrow if the stars align and it won't hurt my balance while finding a cheaper home.

Moving isn't an option-I like my job (Packaging Engineer) and the wifey is planning on staying with hers for a while as well.

My main motivation is the (relatively) low interest rates, combined with lowered pricing in the area. Most of the prices appear to have dropped by 30% in the past 5-8 years.

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No merc at the moment

At your age, with the real estate market moving up, I would take out of the retirement in a heartbeat.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Even "when stars line up," your timing on pulling funds from your IRA(s) may prove to be a very bad exercise from the standpoint of lost run-ups in the market. The stock market does not move in static lines. Although the long-term can be averaged, in forensic chronology, it moves erratically. ALL the dramatic, record average-breaking upward movement in the market can be traced and condensed to just a very few weeks/months of movement. If you missed those periods of condensed investment time - then you have missed out for all time. If you think you can time the market, as many here and elsewhere believe they are capable of - you've got a lot of company......unfortunately armchair market timers have yielded +1.56% upside, according to one data center I read covering a 10 year period. The lesson is, you've got to be in it to win it. The market is impossible to time or predict when to be in, or out of it.

Depends on the time element. The fact of the matter is that the longer a dollar is in the market, the greater the compounding of that dollar. Getting a late start on building a portfolio of anything, RE or stocks, seriously diminishes the benefit those investments can or will provide decades later. Small retirement dollars contributed and allocated in one's 20s 30s to any IRA will usually trump by a long shot any large dollars contributed in one's 40s and 50s. Getting the base started and rolling in one's 20s and 30s, will allow for a much easier financial time of it in one's 50s and 60s, etc. The hard small dollars were deployed decades ago - be they in investment RE, or various investment accounts.

The wrong time to start thinking about where your retirement income is going to come from is in your late 50s - by then it's kind of too late in my experience of observing many other's situations over the years.

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