Yes you have to pay capital gains on selling your properties, but you will recover that quickly with the high returns. 

You’re in the right place to meet like-minded investors and gain local insights.

Learned some valuable nuggets of info!

Sometimes you're better off just selling, taking your tax-free gains and going from there. 

|The gain that you have is ikely passive.

For the 20% down, it’d lower your mortgage and eliminate PMI, but buying now could help you start building equity and gaining appreciation.

If your primary has a net $1M appreciation you’ll only pay $100k cap gains tax - that’s a lower alternative than what you propose.

I'm in this strange position of being out of state and unfortunatley not having the time to visit or gain personal expertise.

When I sold my properties, the price did not increase much (though there was still a slight profit, couple with the rental I had over the years and currency gain (bought when USD was low and sold when USD was high).

If you've enjoyed a lot of appreciation in the value of your primary home, you may want to start a timer to sell before losing the "lived in the house for 2 of the last 5 years" capital gains exemption (limited; not infinite, but big).