Federal Reserve ex-chairman Ben Bernanke: I got turned down for mortgage refinancing

(Image credit: CC by: Ford School of Public Policy)

last updated 8 January 2015

The mortgage sector really is still very tight — as revealed by this new anecdote from none other than former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke himself:

The former Federal Reserve chairman, speaking at a conference in Chicago, told moderator Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics Inc. — "just between the two of us" — that "I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so."

When the audience laughed, Bernanke said, "I'm not making that up."

"I think it's entirely possible" that lenders "may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions," he said. [Bloomberg]

Bernanke's overall point is that the housing market has not picked up as much as the rest of the economy following the 2008 financial crisis, and that credit is still really tight.

But you would at least think that all of that quantitative easing could've won him some more friends.