the wasserblawg

New Report Predicts How, & Where its Happening We may be done with the recession, but there is still a lot of pain left for the mortgage industry and for property values in distressed areas. A new report predicts increases in mortgage fraud ahead for states with high foreclosure rates. When fraud risks rise, increased foreclosure activites follow. Nevada has the highest mortgage fraud risk, California Arizona and Florida. Chicago notwithstanding, Illinois risks trail the national average. An abundance of distressed borrowers, oversupply of foreclosed properties, and relaxed lender valuation guidelines (??) all seem to be fueling new schemes. Most involve property valuation fraud. A trend towards undervaluing REO and short-sale properties is noted, but m ost often values are falsely overstated so that borrowers can extract more equity from properties. Increased reports of inflated appraisals continue "with a vengeance", ( the National risk index is up 25% in the