First American Releases New Fraud Figures

Nationwide, one in every 200 funded residential loans is fraudulent, according to new figures released by First American CoreLogic. FACL analyzed 80 million loans provided through its "Mortgage Fraud Consortium" and identified trends, according to a report in The Orange County Register. The company's findings will come out at the end of this month, but in the meantime, the firm has released some key findings, including figures showing that the fraud rate has been decreasing since 2007 and is now about 25% lower than when it peaked in the third quarter of that year. Since then, lenders have been more aggressive in curtailing mortgage fraud. "In 2010, 2011 and 2012 you won't see nearly the amount of (fraud) reports that you're seeing today," said Tim Grace, senior vice president of fraud analytics. The states where the highest number of fraudulent loans were found include California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.