Bernanke: Mortgage lending standards overly tight

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Bernanke: Mortgage lending standards overly tight
from MarketWatch.com - MarketPulse
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Mortgage lending standards now appear to be "overly tight," and are preventing creditworthy borrowers from buying homes, thus slowing the revival in housing and impeding the economic recovery, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday. Despite welcome signs of an emerging improvement in the housing market in most parts of the country, the sector is "far from being out of the woods," Bernanke said. Strengthening the recovery in housing is a critical challenge for policymakers, he added in a speech to a conference in Atlanta sponsored by Operation Hope, an economic empowerment organization. The extension of mortgages to homeowners fell by more than half from 2006 to 2011 and now stands at the lowest level since 1995, Bernanke said. "We should not be satisfied with the progress we have seen so far," Bernanke said.