Low credit scores mean one-third of Americans can't get a mortgage

Despite reports that the recession is "over" and loan rates are dropping, one-third of Americans still can't get a mortgage because their credit scores are too low. That's the latest from a mortgage market analysis just released by real estate web site Zillow. The economists who crafted the new report, titled Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Analysis, studied Zillow's data of more than 25,000 loan quotes and purchase requests during the first half of September.

Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist who has a PhD in Government, acknowledged that while it isn't a shock that, as a group, we're having trouble getting a mortgage. But even he was surprised that people with a credit score of 620 or less weren't getting even one loan offer, even one with a ridiculously high interest rate. For comparison's sake,. Humphries says that five years ago, homeowners with a credit score of 620 or less made up 20%of home sales. Now, that number has dropped to almost zero.