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One in 200 Home Mortgages is Fraudulent: First American CoreLogic

Nationwide, one in every 200 residential loans funded last year, totaling $14 billion, involved fraud, according to ""First American CoreLogic"":http://www.facorelogic.com.

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Despite what looks like an unsettling amount of shadiness lurking within the mortgage market, the company says the fraud rate has been steadily declining for the past three years and is now about 25 percent lower than when it peaked in the third quarter of 2007.

Since then, First American notes, lenders have been more aggressive in curtailing mortgage fraud â€" a prudent reaction considering banks have been forced to buy back billions of dollars in fraudulent loans sold to investors

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during the boom, when standards were lower and many loans were made without verifying the applicant's information.

""In 2010, 2011, and 2012 you won't see nearly the amount of [fraud] reports that you're seeing today,"" said Tim Grace, SVP of fraud analytics at First American CoreLogic.

According to the company's latest findings, the states where the highest number of fraudulent loans were found included California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Based on First American's trend analysis, the highest risk ZIP codes in the United States for fraud are Jamaica, New York; Orlando and Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Detroit, Michigan. These cities have an average fraud rate three to four times the national level.

First American CoreLogic says 25 percent of foreclosures show fraud in the initial application, and as much as 70 percent of early payment defaults show indications of fraudulent activity in the application process.

The company's conclusions are based on its analysis of 80 million loans passing through its proprietary ""national fraud data repository"":http://dsnews.comarticles/companies-launch-separate-national-mortgage-fraud-databases-2009-10-13. First American CoreLogic's full report will be released later this month.

About Author: Carrie Bay

Carrie Bay is a freelance writer for DS News and its sister publication MReport. She served as online editor for DSNews.com from 2008 through 2011. Prior to joining DS News and the Five Star organization, she managed public relations, marketing, and media relations initiatives for several B2B companies in the financial services, technology, and telecommunications industries. She also wrote for retail and nonprofit organizations upon graduating from Texas A&M University with degrees in journalism and English.
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