Let me paint you the scenario:

I have a customer who bought a 2500 square foot apartment on the upper east side 10 years ago for $1.1M.

His current debt on the apartment is $600K and the apartment is now worth $2.4 Million.

He is an independent contractor and his income fluctuates year over year. In good years and bad, he always is on time with his mortgage payments and has never been late, ever.

His current interest rate is 6.125%.
 When he told me that he had a rate of 6.125%, and all of the other parts of the equation, my first impulse was to tell him to run to the bank and get a refi on his current mortgage.

One of the things that he did not tell me, was that he had very little liquid assets, other than his 401K.
 So he is house rich and cash poor.
 He goes to 3 banks directly and gets turned down every time for a refi, because of the low amounts of cash on hand.

I understand completely that just a few years ago, all you needed was a pulse to get a loan, which helped topple the mortgage business and the housing market........but really, I think that the pendulum has swung to far to the left and that banks are way too tight with lending and lending requirements!
 The moral of the story is, just because loans can be had at mid 4%, doesn't mean you are going to get a new loan!