The weak economy has driven interest rates to record low levels, which has caught the eye of some homeowners looking to refinance.

Here in the Triangle, refi’s are up because there's still plenty of money out there to lend; but there's a catch.

Mortgage officers say the criteria is tighter and lenders aren't offering specialty products like no income loans anymore.

In other words, they're going back to writing loans the old-fashioned way, which if you have the ability to pay back, you'll be able to refinance.

But if you want to re-finance, your credit score rules.

“The one thing that banks are looking at is the credit scores,” said Donna Pruitt, a senior loan officer with the Raleigh office of W.R. Starkey Mortgage.

During the housing boom, a credit score of 620 could still get you a house. Now things are a lot tighter.

“It's all credit score driven,” explained Pruitt. That why she tells customers that it's very important to keep your credit scores as high as possible.

Pruitt said that’s because mortgage insurance companies have changed their guidelines. If you do not have at least a middle 680 score you're more than likely not going to get mortgage insurance to make sure that lender is taken care of if you default before you get to 80 per cent.

With interest rates falling, many folks are refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association says refinancing was up 63 percent in late December. But experts say refinancing only makes sense if it’s a financial benefit to you.

“You have to ask, does refinancing lower your monthly costs? If it does, you win. If it doesn't, then sit tight and check back in a month,” explained nationally-syndicated financial advisor Ric Edelman of Edelman Financial.

Here in the Triangle, loan officer Donna Pruitt sees things on the upswing despite the wave of foreclosures and bad loans that helped spawn the whole credit crisis.

“I am extremely confident about the market,” said Pruitt.  “I think 2009 is going to bring a lot of benefit to everyone. We're going to get busier.”

Right now, Pruitt said the average time it takes to refinance is running is running about a month.  That's from the day you lock in your rate until the day you sign the paperwork to close.