Hey Kurt,
As one of the "old timers" you referred to I have to disagree a bit.  I am not afraid of the changes, just a bit bothered.  I don't see anything really wrong from our end with equity lenders charging upfront fees on a mortgage that they can't get on an simple line of credit and ignoring the title issues.  It does increase the lenders profit while making the real estate more of a commodity.  This does not affect me that much as I have never worked in that end of the industry.
My real concern is this attitude leaking into the owners policies.  A lender is not going to care if the owner can't put in a swimming pool or if the trees all have to be cut down.  There are a number of owner's policies being put out there now that no longer give the protection that people expect.  As Mr. Wedge mentioned in his presentation, the pendulum swings form the old way of doing things, to the Radian idea of shared risk management.  I think shared risk is fine for a lender, but as a homeowner I don't want that.  I want my house covered, period.  I don't want to hear that I was one of the unlucky losers.  I think is is unconscionable that the lenders are foisting these so called owner policies on the public when the buyers don't understand what risks they are facing to save a few bucks.