As if car dealers weren't having a hard enough time with rising gas prices and various other economic issues. I missed this story while off, but the New York Times reported last week that the drying up of home equity lines is yet another source of trouble for new car sales. And like mortgage lenders, those who put together auto loans are making it harder for borrowers to qualify.

From the story, which I spotted at the LA Times real estate blog:

"Auto lenders and banks, closing their wallets, have prevented hundreds of thousands of consumers from obtaining the financing for a car. Home equity loans, which had been used in at least one of every nine deals, when lenders were more generous, are no longer a source of easy money for many prospective buyers. And used-car prices have fallen nearly 6 percent as repossessed cars and gas-guzzling trucks and S.U.V.’s flood auction lots."

Check out the graphic to the left of the story. When you click on it, you get a top 10 list of states where home equity lines were most regularly used to buy new cars. Washington doesn't fall on the list but the top stat is pretty amazing: Last year, 29.8 percent of new cars purchased in California were bought using home equity lines.