Home Buyers With Good Credit Confront Increased Scrutiny

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Frankie Van Cleave says she has paid all her bills on time for more than three decades, save one car payment that got delayed in Christmas mail. But neither solid credit nor her track record running a number of businesses is sparing the 70-year-old from the turmoil in the home-mortgage market.

Several mortgage brokers had courted her to refinance a $1 million adjustable-rate mortgage she currently carries on her home, on two acres of prime riverfront property in Marietta, Ga. But most of them "dropped me like a hot potato" last week after two appraisals came in below $900,000, she says. Her bank of three decades won't help her after her monthly mortgage payments recently ballooned to nearly $8,200, so Ms. Van Cleave is working 80 hours a week as a technical writer to make ends meet.

"A good credit record doesn't count for anything now," Ms. Van Cleave says of her futile refinancing effort. "If you don't have assets, forget it. If you're self-employed, you have real problems in this market."

The market tightening.