Manhattan market affected by tight credit?

According to this article "If you've been in the market for a mortgage recently, you've no doubt noticed how difficult it can be to get approved. You're not imagining it, and it's not just you. Paul McFadden, a loan officer with The Legacy Group in Bellevue, Washington, says, 'These days, the number of mortgage applications that get approved is probably three out of 10. In the heyday, it was nine... [more]

According to this article "If you've been in the market for a mortgage recently, you've no doubt noticed how difficult it can be to get approved. You're not imagining it, and it's not just you. Paul McFadden, a loan officer with The Legacy Group in Bellevue, Washington, says, 'These days, the number of mortgage applications that get approved is probably three out of 10. In the heyday, it was nine out of 10. Normally five or six out of 10 would be the ratio.'" Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/25/investopedia44311.DTL&type=realestate#ixzz0pRiJAaFO So even though mortgage interest rates are as low as they've been in a generation at less than 5%, this doesn't actually mean that there is a lot of credit chasing houses. Because so many people are locked out of the mortgage market, there are probably less than half as much money available to purchase houses as there was during the bubble. But does anyone here know how this affects the high-end market in New York City? For example, most co-ops always had strict policies regarding who they'd approve a sale to and didn't accept people with less than a 20% down payment or a bad work history or FICO score. This could explain why the NYC market hasn't fallen as much as other markets--there was less of a credit bubble here. [less]