“The mortgage business is still a great business,” Christopher Dannen, vice president, residential lending sales manager at People’s United Bank, recently said.

Considering the current state of the mortgage industry and the changes it’s encountered in the last decade, some might be surprised that he can be heard making that rallying cry.

But Dannen, who has worked in the mortgage industry for the last 26 years, is proud of his profession.

Fellow mortgage industry professionals in Connecticut are not only experienced, but “a great group of folks,” he said.

Dannen, who currently works out of the bank’s Bridgeport headquarters, began working for Danbury Savings and Loan as a branch manager. He was promoted to regional bank manager, and when a position opened up in the mortgage department, he jumped at the chance.

“I always liked doing mortgages, and didn’t think there was a real future on the branch side for me,” Dannen said. “I liked mortgages more than I liked being in the branches.”

For Dannen, it’s the gratification of getting clients their loans and into their homes, and being a part of such a milestone in their lives.

Banks Move In

Dannen, who has been with People’s United for nearly 10 years, acknowledges that the mortgage industry has changed significantly in the last decade.

“I think the biggest change I’ve seen in the mortgage business is that it has come back to banks,” he said. Whereas mortgage brokers used to dominate the industry, it’s flipped now, mostly due to the changes in regulations, he explained.

“Banks don’t have the same strict requirements that brokers have,” Dannen said, adding that brokers have been hurt the most by changes as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. “Brokers offered a very broad group of products and a high level of service. Brokers were a very convenient place for a customer to go.”

Products are different as well. There are fewer choices, he said, and the industry has gone “back to basics,” reverting to how it operated 20 to 25 years ago.

One of the biggest changes is the absence of what Dannen calls exotic products, such as subprime mortgages, where people with insufficient credit and income were given home loans. Those types of products which “got the industry in trouble are now gone,” he said.

While things in the mortgage industry aren’t perfect, Dannen said the industry is healthier today than a few years back “when things were out of control.”

“It’s a much healthier, stronger industry [than the one that] strayed too far from basics and lending to people who we shouldn’t have,” he said.

The mortgage industry is still rebuilding itself, but according to Dannen, it’s a great time to consider a career in the industry. He cautions, however, that those entering the field need to have the patience to be trained and learn the business.

Patience is something that Dannen knows all about it. When he’s not helping someone get a mortgage, he’s busy buying and renovating older homes. He currently lives in a Middlebury, Conn. home that dates back to the 1860s, and previously renovated an old farmhouse in Roxbury, Conn. `