While many mortgages are made by big banks like Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. Many used to be originated by small lenders and these small lenders required short term funding to make these mortgages until they could get them sold on the open market. There are about 1000 of these independent lenders who depend on what is called "warehouse funding" to operate. The number of warehouse lenders has dwindled to about 10, where there was 30 in 2007. These small lenders have accounted for about a quarter of the loans made and now they are having a big problem finding funding to make the loans. Just a part of our tight credit market.