Tight standards make mortgages tough to get [View All]

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They have excellent credit with scores that top 800, life-long careers and investment portfolios that have set them up for a comfortable retirement, they say.

But this year, "after faxing a ream of paper" about their finances, they got so fed up applying for a home loan that they simply wrote a check for their new, $85,000 vacation condo in Phoenix.

Trying to get a loan "was just a nightmare," says Bob Zych, 65, a manager for Mohawk Industries in Omaha.

Following the greatest housing crash since the Great Depression, home lending standards have tightened to their strictest levels in decades, economists say. And people such as the Zychs and others nationwide are paying the price.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2011-09-15/mortgages-tough-to-get/50405698/1?loc=interstitialskip