Single, Joint, or keep waiting?

[Anonymous]

So the wife and I would like to get a mortgage by years end but we have a mix of pro's and cons.  

I have about 70k in IRA/401k

I make ~100k/yr (just started this position in Dec '11) prior was making around 65k/yr for the last 4-5 years

Last FICO score I had seen was Experian (?) and was 660

I have about 18k in CC debt (yes I know its bad, quite embarassing to be that bad to be honest and have no new revolving debt for the past 4-5 months)

No car payment

My wife has a much better FICO rating, over 700

She roughly 7k in savings

She has zero reportable income (unemployed for close to 18 months)

She has zero CC debt

She has about 10k in an IRA

Car payment of $400/mo 

We have about 10k in a joint account that's been waiting to be used for our first home purchase

The plan now is to pay down the one card that's only 1k from its max ($6k) while paying the other two cards at a steady but of course slower pace and hopefully be the end of the year I'll have knocked off close to half the existing CC debt.  This is only slightly optimistic since I'm due about $2k+ for my tax refund and im making over $800/mo principal payments.

Although I'd love to wait until I have zero CC debt we live in a two family house and the other tenant is a heavy smoker to the point its affecting both our health.  

So should we try to file jointly, seperate, or just wait?  The wife has a lead on a job but we're guessing it'll be around the $40k/yr mark.

Any input, help, etc.... would be appreciated

[Revelate]

As to whether single or joint I think that's entirely up to you, not sure it'll make much difference except that she has that extra 7k in savings.

You're making 50% more on presumably the same expenses as before, the CC debt shouldn't be hard to pay down.  If you can wait a year, do yourself one better: take that 10K you have in savings, and put it in a 12 month CD or similar asset and take out a 100% LTV loan secured against it and use that to airstrike half your CC debt and refinance it down to rouhgly 3-4% instead of the 15-24% you're on now (USAA / Wells / NFCU / others offer this sort of loan arrangement).  That's around 900 / month payment, but the APR differential is substantial.  There's really no reason to leave the 10K in an account doing nothing but earning maybe 2% interest, when you're sitting on 20% compounding APR on your credit cards.  The secured CD route leaves you with your downpayment in the bank and you get it back once the CD reaches maturity / you pay the loan off... and it's an easier sell to your wife than simply spending the downpayment directly.

You can actually use that trick on a six month CD as well I believe, but that payment may well be larger than you can easily afford.

The biggest thing for you is just get that revolving debt down and you'll be fine; you have the scores to qualify for a FHA mortgage today, lower revolving util should be able to qualify you for a conventional mortgage as well if you so wish.