Arizona ranks 4th in U.S. for mortgage fraud

Arizona now ranks fourth for mortgage fraud nationally. It’s the first time the state has cracked the top five for the problem, according to data released this week from the Mortgage Asset Research Institute.
Florida, New York and California (in that order) rank ahead of Arizona for 2009 mortgage fraud cases. The most prevalent type of home loan fraud is application misrepresentation, which includes borrowers lying about income. Overall, U.S. mortgage fraud climbed 7 percent last year.
Jennifer Butts, manager of data processing at the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, said mortgage fraud typically goes undetected until a loan goes into foreclosure. Arizona …

read the rest of this post