Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The more things change, the more they stay the same

The Mortgage Asset Research Institute reports that the number of fraudulent mortgages climbed 42% in the first quarter of 2008, compared to the first quarter of 2007. The most common fraud is employment history and overstated income. The biggest jump came from understated liens and judgments. Florida leads with 24% of the nation's total, with California in second place (and 52% of those in Los Angeles).

Apparently, with mortgages harder to obtain, folks are being less candid on their loan apps. So will we see these loans coming back in a few years as REO's?

I found it interesting to read on the actual fraud report, MARI's tag line, "Know your customer." What a novel idea for a modern business.

Paul

1 comment:

smf said...

Why should we be surprised at this, when the same (if not a little more) level of speculation as before is still occurring?