Mortgage Fraud Reports Jump 42% in US, MARI Finds
Source: Mortgage Asset Research Institute

Reported incidents of mortgage fraud in the U.S. increased by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from a year ago, according to a new report released today by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARISM), a ChoicePoint® (NYSE: CPS) company. The report is based on data submitted by MARI subscribers about loans that were originated in the first quarter of this year and have since been classified as fraudulent.

Florida continues to lead all states in mortgage fraud, according to the “MARI Quarterly Fraud Report” on the current state of residential mortgage fraud and misrepresentation in the United States. In fact, Florida accounted for 24 percent of all properties with material misrepresentation submitted by MARI subscribers for loans originated during the first quarter of 2008.

California is second in the first quarter 2008 mortgage fraud rankings, followed by a three-way tie for third place among Illinois, Maryland and Michigan.

For all states, the top fraud incident type was in “General Application Misrepresentation” followed closely by misrepresentations related to “Income” and “Employment.” In addition, MARI continues to see multiple fraud types, such as identity theft and identity fraud, in loan transactions.

+ Quarterly Fraud Report — August 2008 (PDF; 209 KB)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Consumer issues, Crime, Housing and real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.