Thinking of selling home yet concerned about tax burden

[Annie Bignon]

We have a lot of equity in our home and want to relocate. We lived in it for 1 year and then rented it for one year. After the renter we moved in again and have been living here for 18 months. My question is, can we sell it now or do we need to hold it for an additional 5 months so that we have lived in it for 2 consecutive years, in order to be able to avoid being taxed on its equity? We want to buy a similar home in another location to live in. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.