An increase in purchase activity for the week ending March 5, 2010 caused mortgage loan application volume to nudge up 0.5 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from the prior week, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. According to MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the seasonally-adjusted Purchase Index increased 5.7 percent on a week-to-week basis, but the Refinance Index fell 1.5 percent.

Foreclosures continue to drive down home prices in hard-hit states like Michigan, but according to the auction company Hudson & Marshall of Texas, this is good news for buyers and investors looking for bargains on homes.

In response to the new regulations under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Advantage Title, Inc. has launched GFEz--a RESPA-compliant Good Faith Estimate (GFE) rate calculator that delivers easy online calculation of title- and escrow-related fees.

In an announcement Tuesday, Dartappraisal.com, a Troy, Michigan-based provider of nationwide residential real estate valuations, said it has integrated with FirstClose, a service of First Lenders Data Inc. (FLDI), an Austin, Texas-based technology solutions provider to mortgage lenders nationwide.

With the buy-now attitude fading, national home price reduction levels continued to decrease this month, according to a recent report by San Francisco-based Trulia, Inc., a real estate search engine. As of March 1, 19 percent of listings on the market had experienced at least one price cut, falling 10 percent from the previous month to the lowest level since Trulia began tracking price reductions in April 2009.

In an effort to attract buyers, home sellers in major cities throughout Florida are reducing prices by more than 10 percent, according to a monthly survey of home listings conducted by ZipRealty, an online real estate brokerage based in Emeryville, California.

Several appraisal organizations, representing more than 35,000 real estate appraisers, are voicing their opposition to the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program, set to take effect April 5, 2010. The program allows broker price opinions (BPOs) to be used to determine the value of properties to establish a minimum offer for a short sale. The trade groups argue that the use of BPOs will not protect all parties interests and is likely to open the door for fraud.

Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., a global investment banking firm with regional headquarters in New York, announced Friday that it has appointed Steve Abrahams as managing director and head of securitization and mortgage-backed securities research within the firm's global markets division.

New York-based Centerline Capital Group, a real estate asset management and financial services firm and subsidiary of Centerline Holding Company, announced Monday that it completed a series of transactions with Island Capital Group, LLC, an international merchant banking firm headquartered in New York, and its creditors and preferred shareholders.

Many lending groups have expressed serious concerns about several proposed regulations under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act). To address these concerns, a number of national and local trade groups, led by the Mortgage Bankers Association, filed a comprehensive comment letter with HUD on Friday. While the groups support aspects of the proposal, the letter says HUD is exceeding its statutory authority under the SAFE Act by establishing a backup system and determining whether state laws meet the SAFE Act's minimum requirements.