Although the risk of fraud decreased last month on loans to finance a home purchase, an increase was recorded for refinances. Overall risk was lower.
As of March, the Loan Application Defect Index — an estimate of the level of defects, fraud and misrepresentation detected in the information submitted in mortgage applications — was 82.
Compared to the previous month, the index retreated by more than 1 percent. The decline is an indication that the level of fraud risk has eased.
But the index was escalated 4 percent versus the same month last year.
First American Financial Corp. reported the index Friday.
While the risk on refinances rose more than a percent from February, risk on purchase-money transactions eased by more than 2 percent.
Wyoming saw the most deterioration from March 2017 in its index: 19 percent. Close behind was Arkansas’ 18 percent, then 16 percent in Virginia, more than 15 percent in Maryland and less than 15 percent in New Mexico.
With a 12 percent
drop, Louisiana had the most improvement.
Arkansas had an index of 106 in March 2018, the highest of any state.
