This weekend, the NY Times real estate section looks at tales of would-be condo buyers who have lost their deposits (many in the six-figure range) with banks now suddenly worried about lending. In 2005, one couple put down a 10% deposit—and were approved for a mortgage—for a Toll Brothers two-bedroom in Hoboken; when they tried to close last fall, many banks told them to increase the deposit by 15-25% for a mortgage. Since the couple couldn't, "Toll Brothers declared them in default and kept their deposit" of $93,199. That couple is suing, as is another who forfeited their 10% deposit ($173,000) on a (non-Toll Brothers) Chelsea two-bedroom, because "mortgage brokers told them that 90 percent financing no longer existed." Some buyers buying smaller units or scraping up more money for deposits, but many contracts before last fall required buyers to be committed to the property "regardless of whether they could get financing." Jonathan J. Miller, of research and appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tells the Times, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, because it will only start to ease when credit stabilizes.”