Finding a Mortgage Is Getting Tougher
Borrowers with good credit but without 5 or 10 percent to put down are likely to be shocked at the rate they're offered, if they're offered a mortgage at all.
Lenders are eliminating certain products altogether as well as requiring higher credit scores and down payments, more extensive appraisals, larger savings accounts, and additional income verification.
To Washington state appraiser Bill Hanson, the shift is dramatic. He says lenders are "asking for unrelated information, such as permit numbers for remodeling work," he says. "Before they would ask: 'Is the home still there and does the roof leak?'"
"We thought the dust was going to settle, but instead, it just blew up," says Mitchell Reiner, president of Mortgage Associates, a Los Angeles-based lender that does business in 48 states. "Everyone is being affected."
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Karp (08/14/2007)
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