The general feeling in the mortgage markets is one of constricted lending.
Many reasons are given: tighter regulations, a high cost of origination, stronger underwriting standards.
Neil Cavuto in Fox Business says don’t blame the banks because you can’t get a mortgage.
After all, they’re not being stingy, they’re being smart, he argues:
My friends, banks aren’t being tight-fisted, they’re just returning to form — and I like to think a fiscally-prudent form at that. Their demands may seem out of the recent norm, but they are very much the historical norm. You have to have a good credit score, a good employment history, and likely a good amount of dough to put down to show you’ve got serious intent. What’s more, you have to prove that intent. You have to prove promise. You have to prove you’re not flipping through the process, you’re understanding the process and the responsibility that comes with owning a home.
These might seem like outrageous demands to some today. We’re just going back to the simple demands pre go-go days! For previous generations they were the way things were done — so what’s so dangerous about returning to those basic standards now?
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