Alaskan,
The best home purchase is one done with the intention of owning for a long time. The reason for this is simple--- selling a house is a costly proposition. The shorter your ownership period, the worse the odds that appreciation will cover selling costs. Unless you (1) elect to stay in Alaska for a while or (2) are very lucky there's a pretty good chance that your first house will be an expensive learning experience.
Another good condition for buying is that your cost of ownership, including the mortgage payments, compares favorably with the cost of renting in the same market. Whenever you pay a big premium to own (over renting) you face significant risk because the option of renting the house to others, rather than selling, won't be beneficial.
Combine those factors ands you're better of renting in much of the country, particularly if you are young and mobile.
Since your are clearly heavy-duty savers, you would buy the Vanguard Energy fund as planned. It will diversify our portfolio further and, if you invest about $4k, won't make that big a dent in your savings account.
I think you will discover, over the next 12 months, that having cash is a good thing because you'll be able to buy without borrowing and you may be able to get some things quite cheap.
Scott
