Prospect Mortgage, an independent residential retail mortgage lender, recently appointed Joel Epstein as REO manager for the company's Southeast region. In his new role, Epstein will be responsible for building sales volume from REO Properties, and he will work to establish and maintain relationships with key real estate agent partners and broker owners in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

The combination of a down economy and high levels of housing inventory has put sellers at a disadvantage as home prices have continued to drop throughout the summer. According to a report released Wednesday by Trulia, 24 percent of listings on the market as of July 1, 2010 experienced at least one price reduction, a 9 percent increase from the previous month. The total dollar amount slashed came in at $27.3 billion, and the average discount for price-reduced homes continued to hold steady at 10 percent off of the original listing price.

Delinquency rates for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) were mixed in June. According to Fitch Ratings, U.S. prime RMBS serious delinquencies rose for the 37th consecutive month. But during the same period, Alt-A RMBS delinquencies declined for the third consecutive month, and subprime late-pays fell for the fourth straight month.

Due to a drop in both purchase and refinance activity, mortgage loan application volume fell 2.9 percent for the week ending July 9, 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. According to MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the purchase index dipped 3.1 percent from previous week, hitting the lowest level observed in the survey since December 1996. In addition, MBA said the refiannce index fell 2.9 percent from one week to the next.

Michael Richardson was recently named COO of Encore Equities, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Encore Enterprises, Inc. In this newly created role, Richardson will focus on broker/dealer and EB-5 capital channels as Encore continues its next stage of growth. He comes to Encore with 25 years' financial services industry experience, specializing in real estate capital markets and structured finance.

The Pennsylvania Department of Banking means business. According to a quarterly report, the department took 26 enforcement actions and suspended three mortgage licenses during the second quarter of this year. Among the enforcement actions taken, the department issued six cease-and-desist orders against companies engaged in unlicensed loan modification activities, and the department entered consent agreements with 10 mortgage loan companies for violations of the Mortgage Licensing Act and/or unlicensed activity.

In an effort to give investors and first-time homebuyers an opportunity to purchase a variety of homes at significant discounts, Hudson & Marshall of Texas, Inc., (H&M) is auctioning nearly 250 bank-owned homes this week in cities throughout Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This week's auctions started July 13 and will continue through July 17. The properties up for bid are valued from as little as $8,000 to more than $435,000.

The online real estate bidding site RealtyBid.com has partnered with the special assets group of national commercial real estate broker, Marcus & Millichap, to develop CommercialBid.com--an online bidding site specifically for commercial real estate assets. The new Web site officially launched July 1, 2010 with the unveiling of a special bidding event offering commercial property and commercial loans valued at more than $60 million.

The Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) guaranteed more than $33.4 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in June. Total single-family issuance for March was more than $32.4 billion. Ginnie Mae II single-family pools totaled nearly $20.1 billion, and Ginnie Mae I single-family pools came in at $12.3 billion. In addition, the association's multifamily MBS issuance was just over $1 billion.

Real Estate Disposition, LLC (REDC), a real estate auction marketing firm based in Irvine, California, has promoted Jason Allnutt to chief business officer. In his new role, Allnutt will focus on leading all new business initiatives for REDC. As Allnutt takes on his new position within the company, REDC Default Solutions, LLC, which Allnutt launched, is also expanding its team.