Consumer lending

From gathering information on buildings to complex income and asset profiles of buyers, loan officers in New York have many bases to cover and hurdles to leap. Debra Shultz of Guaranteed Rate makes it look easy.

The average down payment percentage rose 49 basis points for a conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage between the first and second quarters, according to LendingTree.

Home equity line of credit originations are in the midst of a comeback, fueled by the rise in home prices, according to a white paper released by Experian.

A UBS Group AG unit suffered a setback in a $2 billion lawsuit over allegedly defective mortgages after a judge said it violated contracts with three mortgage-backed securities trusts.

It was 1976, the year of the U.S. Bicentennial, the dawn of Apple Computer and supersonic commercial flight aboard the Concorde jet. The average rate for a 30-year mortgage was 8.87% and the median sales price of existing homes was $38,100. And in an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, National Mortgage News was born.

Here's a look at some of the mortgage industry's most pioneering ideas and trends that have created legacies that have outlasted the companies that established them.

Home prices have returned to their precrisis peaks, but homeownership rates keep on slipping.

Mortgage servicing has undergone a dramatic transformation in response to the housing crisis, creating an environment where a focus on the consumer will define how servicers approach their business and regulators oversee their operations.

It's no secret that subprime lending played a heavy role in the demise of the mortgage broker. But to truly understand how brokers rose to prominence, it is helpful to look back to the channel's beginnings. Here's a look at three data points that sum up the rise and fall of the mortgage broker.

So long as government-backed entities are guaranteeing 90% of originations, competition that could result in greater mortgage options for borrowers is being stifled. But a return of private capital to the market, possibly through securitization, could fix that.