Despite a recent push from the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to expand the credit box, a Bloomberg article explains that times are still tough for borrowers, especially those using a part-time job to help boost their income.

As the economy produces an increasing number of part-time jobs, that trend is colliding with rules that limit their value for homebuyers. The restriction, enacted after the housing crash, makes it more difficult for lenders to consider secondary income, resulting in a growing pile of loan denials, said Susan Wachter, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The article explained that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Ability to Repay rule states that part-time wages can be included by banks in determining the ability to repay a mortgage if an employer verifies that the borrower has worked at the job for two years and will continue to do so. 

However, the article added that there are some ambiguities in the requirements, such as lenders can consider a series of part-time jobs to meet the two-year rule — as long as the positions are in the same industry.