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"Is it just me, or is it harder to get a mortgage loan these days?"

The answer is a resounding 'yes.' We are in the middle of paying for the sins of the early and mid 2000's, and those past sins have made it significantly harder to obtain a mortgage loan today. Here are some of the ways this phenomenon is rearing it's head:

1. Credit score — the minimum required credit scores have gone up significantly over the past two years. Before, one could get a mortgage loan if you were breathing, but now a borrower is required to have at least a pretty good credit score. Some programs require very good credit scores. If you have a score under 620, there will not be many options available to obtain a mortgage loan.

2. Cash — 100% financing was very common a few short years ago, but now a borrower needs to have at least 3% down in most cases. And, smaller down payment loans are looked at very closely in the underwriting process as far as analyzing the other factors of the loan such as credit and debt to income.

3. Debt to income ratios — the amount of one's debt has always played a factor in obtaining mortgage credit, but the underwriting models now call for a lower "DTI" than they used to ... meaning, folks can't be as debt-heavy as they once could and still obtain a home.

4. Property values — perhaps one of the biggest changes over the last few years has been the wild fluctuations in property values. With all of the foreclosures suppressing prices, values have generally continued their steady slide downward. This has resulted in many cases of people being "underwater" in their homes and not being able to sell, or sellers not being able to net enough out of the sale of their home to buy another home.

5. Federal regulations — there have been more federally imposed regulations in the last couple of years than in the previous 20 years combined. While done in the name of consumer protection, these regulations actually have served to clog up the system, and ended up costing the consumer more time and money in the house-buying process.

The last 2-3 years have been the perfect storm of events in working against the home buyer or home refinancer, but there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. Values are (hopefully) finding a bottom, the panic in underwriting has subsided, and everyone has a decent handle on the new regulations. Moving forward, my hope is that mortgage lending will soon return to a more normal life.