I misunderstood, CONCHO. Thanks for the correction. Why would a lender in a non-recourse state like California care much how many other assets you have? Even if they cared some, why would they give any weight to qualified retirement assets?

Let’s face it, homeowners who are in difficulties are not going to cash in their 410k to pay the mortgage if the value of the home is much below the mortgage.

Whilst I accept that lenders may be taking these other factors into account to justify lending, it all strikes me as desperate attempts to avoid requiring big cash downpayments with careful appraisals, which are the only real protections against default losses.