Certainly one reason that it's becoming more expensive is that what banks and other financial institutions have to pay in order to raise the funds that they lend has gone up. It's certainly gone up relative to the riskless credit, which is the government. Then this gets reflected in the price that banks and other lenders charge to their borrowers.
To give a very simple example, before the crisis began, more appropriately during the credit boom, it was possible to get a floating rate mortgage at below the prime rate. So prime minus 100 basis points, one full percentage point, or prime minus 80 basis points was a very common price. Now--