Question about paying taxes on the sale of a home!

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Hi,

I'm pretty new to this. I'm just starting the process of selling my first home (which my husband already owned when we met so I had no part in buying it either). So I have to admit that I don't know much at all. I have a lot of questions but I'm just going to bug you guys about one question about taxes.
My husband and I are selling our townhouse and moving to another town. We are not going to buy a new place right away but will instead rent for the first year or two as we are not sure that we want to live in this new town permanently. I know that we have to pay certain taxes when we sell our home, but as I understand it we can avoid paying at least some of these taxes if we invest our money from the sale of our current house into a new house. Is this correct? If it is, how long do we have to put the money into a new place to avoid paying these taxes? Also, is it necessary to put the money from the house into a new place or can we invest it into something else, like a retirement account or similar? I've been told that you can't just put the profit from the sale into a savings account or spend it. Is this true?
If someone could help me shed some light on these things I would really appreciate it. Any info would be really helpful. If it matters, I live in Illinois.

Thanks a lot,

Rocktosh :D