2 in 3 Americans say harder to get mortgage: survey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two in three Americans say it has become more difficult to obtain mortgages, reflecting how lenders have made it tougher to obtain credit as housing prices tumble and capital markets tighten.

According to a survey commissioned by Deloitte LLP, 67 percent of people who applied for a home mortgage found the process more difficult than before the U.S. housing crisis began a year ago.

Sixty-five percent of people seeking home equity lines of credit also reported greater difficulty, as did 62 percent of those seeking personal loans, the survey said.

Deloitte attributed the results to banks' restricting access to credit, and consumers' belief that the terms they are being offered might be too onerous in light of weak economic conditions.

More than nine in 10 people believe the nation's economy is barely growing or in recession, the survey said.

A Federal Reserve survey in April of senior loan officers said banks tightened lending standards over the previous three months out of concern about a weakening economic outlook.

Obtaining home loans could grow even tougher if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee $5 trillion of debt, were to find it harder to buy mortgages.

Their shares tumbled on Friday after The New York Times said the Bush administration was considering a plan to put the mortgage companies, long thought to have implicit government backing, into a conservatorship if their problems worsen.

Deloitte said it commissioned its survey from Harris Interactive, which studied 2,019 adults from June 5 to 9.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Richard Chang)