Hello,

Sorry for a long description, but it needs some background information:

I have permanently  relocated to IL, USA from Canada in Sep'05, my US
credit history is relatively new. I have worked on temporary
assignments in US before and thus have a US secure credit card since
Oct?04; my bank recently converted it to non-secure. I also have
another credit card and a car loan, they are fairly new, about 4
months old.
I have never missed or been late for a payment, my credit history in
Canada is good with FICO score of 750, and my US FICO score is 700. I
understand these numbers are not static.
I am married and my spouse does not work and we are renting a place. I
have been with same firm for 6+ years, I took a transfer within the
same firm to relocate to USA ( so have long employment history), my
annual income is 110K and I have approx 70k in savings, 12K in stocks
and other assets like car etc.I have just started contributing to
401K, currently it amounts to 4k. Also, I have some money (approx
12k) locked in retirement plans in Canada. I am paying $ 350 pm for my
car loan.

At my current pace, I should have additional 20k in savings 8 months from now.
Summary of money situation: Annual Income 110k, savings account 70k (
add 20k in 8 months), stocks 12k, 401k has 4k

I want to buy a house preferably a town-house, with prevailing rates
and our requirements ( location etc), minimum price would be in range
of 330-375k.  And I am thinking to make 10% down payment. I am afraid
to approach any lending institution because I do not want to have too
many credit inquiries.

Considering my whole situation I have few questions:

Would I be ready to buy a house in 6-8 months and would it be a wise
decision? With short credit history I have, would I be able to arrange
mortgage? (To put in perspective, it took some convincing to get a car
loan and I was rejected for a credit card too).
What should I be doing to position myself so I am able to buy house
6-8 months from now? Would it be wise to contact new home builders at
this point?

What mortgage lenders would consider my application? Are there any
institutions willing to consider Canadian credit history?

Note : I am very well aware of the calculators on various websites to
determine how much I can afford, etc.

Just my 2 cents...but a mortgage loan is MUCH different than a CC or
Car and your employment history (just get your employer in the States
to indicate that you have been with the firm for 6 years...where
shouldn't matter)/income are adequate for a large mortgage.  Your
biggest hurdle will be downpayment percentage but at the rate of
savings you are putting away that shouldn't end up being a problem.

If you are going to stay in the US forever you may want to consider
collapsing your RRSP as you will be able to get your $ with just the
agreed upon foreign income tax (I beleive it is 25%) rather than the
45% would would have paid if you were still in Canada and earning what
you pay now.

Also...in Canada we do not use FICO scores per se...each bank takes
info from the credit bureau (say Equifax of TransCanada which includes
the FICO) and interprets that info in its own way such that you may
end up with a 'score'...this 'score' can be different from bank to
bank as each bank looks at the Equifax info slightly differently given
their tolerance to risk etc.  In Canada you may get a Credit Rating
which gives individual ratings to each trade and an overall rating. I,
as a lender, don't look at the overall rating (FICO) but at the
individual trades.

Good luck with everything.

It's hard to improve on g_dana-ga's comments, but I work in the RE
industry, so I'll add my 2¢ --BUY NOW!

You have what lenders are looking for:

Good job history
Good credit score
Good payment history
Assets (you have extra income to invest)

Don't worry about those minor rejections, any "A Paper" lender would
be happy to do their best to find you a loan.

In addition to your favorable position to start, consider that real
estate is still appreciating very fast. I don't know about your area,
but the Pacific Northwest is booming. True story, just happened: my
brother is a real estate agent, sold this house for $240,000 in 2003.
Those folks called him in October and it was put on the market for
$370,000, and SOLD in about 6 weeks. You can't "save" money that fast.

Buy NOW! Your next questions here should be about mortgages, best
places to apply, etc. You might condider an FHA loan, very VERY low
downs, I think you might qualify.