Q. I was told by a loan officer that if your credit score is 620 or below they cannot loan 100%. Can you please let me know if this is accurate?

A.It's true. What you're experiencing is a growing reluctance on the part of lenders across the nation to make subprime loans. Those are high-interest loans provided to the 20% of consumers with credit scores of 620 or less. The entire banking industry has been shaken over the past several months as one lender after another reported significant increases in defaults on subprime loans and acknowledged they have been overestimating the ability of borrowers with below-average credit to keep up with their payments.

A government-chartered company that buys, packages and resells mortgages to investors, said it would impose tough new standards on the subprime loans it purchases. About half of the subprime loans Freddie Mac has been buying from banks and mortgage companies will no longer qualify, making lenders even less likely to make them.

As a result, borrowers with low credit scores will probably not qualify for 100% financing, and it will be much more difficult for borrowers with good credit to get this type of financing. A year ago, consumers with credit scores as low as 580 had little problem getting a mortgage with no down payment. Today, it's hard difficult to qualify no matter what your score is.

Loans covering the full purchase price of a home for borrowers with low credit scores "are going to be a thing of the past real soon," Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage Group, a Manhasset, N.Y., broker, told the Wall Street Journal.

An alternative is to seek an FHA loan. They are designed to help buyers with little or no money for a down payment and less than perfect credit. Our guide to FHA loans will walk you through the process and also introduce you to down payment assistance programs. They will actually give you money for the down payment on homes participating in the program.