5-Year Low for Mortgage Fraud Index

5-Year Low for Mortgage Fraud Index

Mortgage Daily tracked activity on 105 mortgage fraud cases for $1.3 billion during the fourth quarter. The actions are chronicled at the mortgage fraud blog FraudBlogger.com and represent activity on mostly criminal cases filed in local, state and federal courts.

It was the fewest number of cases tracked since at least 2007, while the dollar amount hasn’t been this low since the first-quarter 2011.

Activity fell from 141 cases for $1.7 billion three months earlier and 171 cases for $1.8 billion a year earlier.

The Mortgage Fraud Index, itself, was 758 in the fourth quarter — its lowest showing since the first-quarter 2008.

Index by Quarter

But the decline in activity appears only to be temporary, according to Mortgage Daily Founder and Publisher Sam Garcia.

“Preliminary data indicates that mortgage fraud case activity during the first quarter of this year was up around 25 percent from the fourth quarter,” he said.

The Mortgage Fraud Index factors in both the number of cases and the estimated amount of loans associated with each case.

While SARs and other fraud risk measures focus on fraud that might have happened or could happen — the Mortgage Fraud Index reflects proven cases of fraud.

Based on the dollar amount of loans involved, Florida — which wasn’t even ranked among the five-worst during the third quarter — ascended to the top spot.

California tied Florida for the highest state index, though California’s index slid from the third quarter, when the state ranked No. 1.

Top States by Total Amount