>Paying cash for a house is just about impossible for the average person. Which means most everybody will need to use a bank. The difference between not qualifying for the bank's (arbitrary) standards for a loan and "not being allowed" seems more pedantic than meaningful.

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Banks are in the business of making loans. Any buyer with a thought in his head will contact a mortgage representative from a bank and get pre-approved or pre-qualified. The rules for qualifying are a little different from lender to lender. They will tell you what they are. I would also advise becoming a member of a local credit union because sometimes their guidelines are more easygoing if you're buying a home in the city or town where they're located.

The days when lenders refused to lend to a to a qualified buyer because of race or ethnicity are long gone. If they refuse you despite your having good credit may be due to some minor rule, like inability to account for the source of your downpayment. If that is the case, the mortgage representative (who is also in the business of bringing in loans) will work with you to create a history for the source of the downpayment. The only time I had a hard time qualifying for a loan was back in 1981, and that was because depositors had withdrawn their money from banks and put it into high interest money market funds like Fidelity. Most banks had no money to lend. Mortgage companies had not yet been created.