The Big Picture, a bear investment blog by Barry Ritholtz, recently highlighted a NYT article about home equity line of credit loans becoming scarce in an environment where banks are overextended and housing prices are falling.

Here’s the sickest part of the entire affair: Borrowers with an excellent credit rating will see their FICO score dinged when their home equity line is frozen. Why? When a lender suddenly caps a $50,000 line at $25,000, it appears that the borrower tapped out the entire amount of the loan. This reduces their score.

The NYT article also highlights Fee Disclosure, a website dedicated to helping home buyers discover and minimize hidden fees that are typically associated with mortgages.

If you were thinking of getting a home equity loan while interest rates are low, it looks like it still might be worth waiting it out for a few more months to see if the choppy waters clear and banks are less emotional about extending new HELOC loans.

TechCrunch covered news of the new Zillow mortgage marketplace:

Borrowers submit just the essentials – what type of loan they need, where they’re located, their estimated property value, their credit history, etc – without divulging any of their contact info. Then certified lenders make offers that can be compared side-by-side.

Think of this new Zillow launch as LendingTree in reverse, where the borrower picks the lender.