The Atlanta, Georgia-based default law firm "Rubin Lublin, LLC":http://www.RubinLublin.com has a new name â€" Rubin Lublin Suarez Serrano, LLC. Attorneys Frances Suarez-McKinney and Peter Serrano have added their names to the company's door.

"TitleVest":http://www.titlevest.com, a Manhattan-based provider of title insurance and related real estate services, recently announced the addition of Robert Buzard as managing director of business development.

Sorrento Capital, a private asset management firm based in Irvine, California, has acquired reo.com, an online portal for the disposition of bank-owned real estate.

The volume of home loan applications rose last week, thanks to a 7 percent jump in the number of homeowners looking to refinance, according to a ""weekly survey"" released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The number of mortgage servicers under contract to perform government-sanctioned loan modifications has grown to 38.

James Lockhart, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director who oversaw the government̢¢s seizure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Wednesday that he will step down and return to private finance.

In recent weeks, many economists and market-watchers have begun speculating that the housing market is bottoming out and recovering.

Houston, Texas-based Integrated Mortgage Solutions (IMS), a collateral protection resource for the mortgage servicing industry, announced Tuesday that it has named Karen Binder assistant vice president of marketing and special projects.

The San Francisco Association of Realtors and Rosen Consulting Group, an economic and real estate consulting firm in the Bay Area, have released Market Focus, a new joint monthly report analyzing the state of San Francisco's housing and mortgage markets, and the local economy.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and the Ohio Department of Commerce have filed a joint lawsuit against Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC.