Responding to a survey, designers and builders told Professional Builder that almost three-quarters of them had lost at least one deal sometime in the previous 12 months because buyers could not get financing.

More than half said they had to skip a deal because they had trouble getting the backing needed.

"A whopping 71.6 percent of survey respondents said their company lost one or more sales during the past 12 months because a prospective buyer was not able to secure a loan, while slightly more than half (55.5 percent) said they had to pass on a potentially lucrative project because they could not secure project financing," Editor-in-Chief David Barista wrote Tuesday.

"When asked if they would be building and selling more homes today if financing was more readily available, more than 83 percent of respondents either 'strongly' or 'somewhat' agreed, while just 7.5 percent disagreed with the notion," Barista reported.