WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. banks are imposing stringent financial requirements on homeowners looking to refinance at record-low mortgage rates, analysts say.
The situation has effectively locked many would-be customers out of the market at a time when a fragile recovery is under way, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The mortgage rates -- lowest since the 1940s at 4.8 percent -- have come thanks to massive government intervention in the financial markets, but hard-hit consumers, many of whom are facing foreclosure, aren't able to take advantage of them because once-profligate banks have done a complete about-face, experts say.
"The government has succeeded in driving mortgage rates down to their lowest level in our lifetime," Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance magazine, told the Times. "That hasn't been a big home run, because a lot of people can't take advantage of it."
The newspaper said President Barack Obama will encourage banks such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs to lend more to consumers and to small businesses at a Monday White House meeting.
