Foreclosed homes are regularly set on the market by the two major home lenders: government agencies and banks. Be they government foreclosures or bank foreclosures, what matters most is that they can be purchased at expenses lower than their real market value. This is why homebuyers or investors generally are in haste as soon as a reliable foreclosure opportunity is listed. After having investigated the real estate market and its potentialities, homebuyers must move quickly if they want to grasp this temporary chance. In what follows we will see some of the basics and advantages of opting either for government foreclosures or for bank foreclosures.

The most popular government agencies that frequently market foreclosure properties are as follows:
1) the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (you are probably already familiar with HUD foreclosed homes);
2) the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (for the well-known VA foreclosures); 3) local agencies of taxation;
4) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC – the department dealing with foreclosure sales);
5) the Internal Revenue Service (IRS – once again the segment dealing with foreclosures).
However, the market of government foreclosures is led by HUD foreclosures and VA foreclosures.

In any case, the point is that with government foreclosures one of the above mentioned government agencies is holder of the property’s title. As a rule, they will place any foreclosed property at auction. The buyer’s advantages are basically drawn from bidding opportunities generated by auction circumstances: the potential buyer’s chance to set a limit for the house value, the certainty over the time interval spent to acquire a property, the possibility to evade prolonged negotiations with the former homeowner. As with any auction, government foreclosures are purchased if the bidder’s offer is appropriate. Also, your involvement in government foreclosures auctions needs to be mediated by a certified real estate agent who is regularly rewarded a 6% bonus for having successfully sold the property. The real estate agent’s indemnity is an additional figure to the sum you place as a bid.

To what concerns bank foreclosures, there are three major ways of purchasing such properties. One of them is in pre-foreclosures. In this case, you will need to act promptly, because there is actually very little time up until a property in a pre-foreclosed stage is transferred to foreclosure terms. So before properties actually become bank foreclosures, the active, smart homebuyer/investor – who has previously undergone a serious investigation of an area’s real estate market – will know to move in the direction of negotiating directly with the distressed homeowners. If pre-foreclosure attempts fail, the next step is an auction.

With bank foreclosures, the auction is required by the banks whose lends haven’t been acquitted on time. In such circumstances, the homebuyer/investor could try to overpass the bank’s bidding offers. Yes, the bank will also bid in such auctions, interested in stepping further along the process of profitably selling foreclosures. If the auction is won by the bank, the property becomes an REO (real estate owned) foreclosure property. This is the third way in which you could purchase bank foreclosures. When you are interested in REOs, you will negotiate directly with the bank. The main advantage of the potential homebuyer/home investor is that this is the most certain manner (and one of the fastest) of acquiring a foreclosed property. You will need to make an offer, but be careful: the offer should be commonsensical, don’t expect a bank to accept a discount of 50%, even if we are talking about foreclosures. Most often, you will get a 10%-20% lower price for an REO foreclosure.

In the end, the key toward purchasing foreclosures, no matter the entity selling them, is given by two stages:
careful real estate market investigation and promptness in action when the time comes to place your offer.
Remember that the market of foreclosures, no matter how advantageous, is highly competitive, since many homebuyers/investors are interested in it.

About the author: The above Real Estate information on Buying Government Foreclosures or Bank Foreclosures: Basics was provided by William Henderson, a Florida Licensed Real Estate Agent with over 15 years in the Banking, Finance and Real Estate related fields. William can be reached by email at whenderson586@gmail.com or by phone at 786-346-5611. You can also check the website http://www.foreclosuredump.com for up to date properties for sale in your area.

 

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07.14.10 By Credit.com Staff

In an effort to find more affordable home prices, more Americans turned toward foreclosures during the first quarter of 2010, according to a new report. The study - conducted by foreclosure listing and information website Foreclosure Deals - reveals that 31 percent of home sales during the first three months of the year were for homes whose previous owners defaulted on their mortgage loans.

The total number of foreclosure home sales during the first quarter is 33 percent lower than those sold during the first three months of 2009. A combined total of 232,950 foreclosed homes were sold in January, February and March. Lower sales prices are one of prime reasons consumers turn toward a foreclosure, with the average price being 27 percent lower than a traditional home during the first quarter of 2010.

"Buyers are attracted to foreclosures because they offer tremendous discounts," Foreclosure Deals business analyst James Foxx said. "The numbers show that each year, the total number of foreclosures sold has increased, and that's not just a reflection of supply. They're very popular, and for good reason, there's no better investment value in real estate currently out there."

Statistics reveal that foreclosure home sales have increased by 320 percent overall since 2007.

Many lenders, such as Fannie Mae, have implemented programs and created help centers to assist borrowers and try to reduce the incidence of foreclosure. But as unemployment rates remain high and the backlog in repossessing foreclosed properties may be skewing the real amount of Americans who have defaulted on their mortgage, it is unlikely that recovery will come as quickly as many individuals hope.

It has been more than two years since Sandra Hines got shoved out of her family's home of 38 years, but her loss still feels fresh and raw. She remains proud of her northwest Detroit neighborhood. Its streets are lined with stately trees and dozens of modest brick and concrete houses like the one her family called home for a generation. Today, the two story house sits empty, but through the window a ladder and can of paint can be spotted in the living room -- signs that the new owner has been here working.

Hines, now in her mid 50s, looks inside and sees her lost future. "They were going to grow up," she says of her two nieces, "and this was going to be the house for them, from one generation to another... the one that was going to be passed down in the family."

Two years ago, Hines, her two sisters and a niece watched as bailiffs came to the house to throw out their belongings and padlock the doors. "I never imagined we'd be in this place," she told me through tears not long after the foreclosure. "I moved into that house when I was 18 years old. It was our base."

But the summer of 2007, the Hines took out an adjustable rate refinance loan from H&R Block, to do some repairs on the house. Like millions of other families, when their monthly payment began climbing after just three months, they could no longer keep up. They fell rapidly into default and just days before Christmas they were evicted, becoming one of 2.5 million foreclosures completed between 2007 and 2009. Some analysts predict another 10 to 13 million more will begin the foreclosure process before the crisis ends.

The Applied Research Center, which publishes ColorLines, featured Hines' story in Race and Recession, a 2009 investigative report on the uneven fallout of the economic downturn. The report finds that the economic crisis is not only impacting communities of color at disproportionate rates, but that the country's long failure to address systemic racial inequity through public policy eventually threw the whole economy into free fall.

Now, as the country slumps toward completing a third year of this recession, it continues to roll roughshod through communities like the one Hines once called home, where boarded up windows and empty driveways now litter a once vibrant neighborhood. Despite the Obama administration's  foreclosure prevention program, little has changed in either the scale or pace of lost wealth--and community--in places like this. In the ColorLines video above, which was featured on GRITtv this week, Hines revisits her former community and reflects on her own loss.

A recent report from the Center for Responsible Lending found there are almost 6 million homes at imminent risk of foreclosure right now. These are homes where the owners are at least two mortgage payments behind.
 
Goldman Sachs estimates that by 2014, 13 million homes will be gone. And Black, Latino, Asian, Native American and Alaskan Native/Pacific Islander borrowers are all more likely than White borrowers to be at risk of losing their homes immediately. One in five of both Black and Latino homeowners today are at the brink of foreclosure.

In dollars, the losses already tallied will mean that between 2009 and 2012, Black and Latino communities will be drained of $194 and $177 billion, respectively, because of the plummeting home values in the high foreclosure neighborhoods. "This is wealth that would have been passed down, used to pay for college, to use in retirement, to buy a car," says Keith Ernst, who authored the Center for Responsible Lending report.

In 2009, the White House pushed through its Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, as the president's signature foreclosure prevention program. Congress rejected reforming bankruptcy law to allow judges to modify home loans and the administration resisted calls for HAMP to include forced reductions of principal balances on loans. Instead, HAMP offered mortgage servicers incentives to reduce struggling borrowers' monthly mortgage payments to no more 31% of their income by bringing down interest rates and extending the life of the loan.

In March, the administration updated the program to urge loan servicers to adjust principals on homes where the owner owes more than the property is worth and to encourage modifications for unemployed borrowers who are not yet in default.

The program has nonetheless failed by any measure to meet the need, mostly because it remains little more than a subsidy for the servicing industry and fails to make meaningful modifications mandatory. As of May, servicers participating in HAMP had reworked a mere 340,000 mortgages, which amounts to only about a fifth of the homes eligible for a modification under the program.

"At best," says Ernst, "HAMP might help in the low millions of owners. But when we're up against the more than 10 million number, that's not enough."

Advocates continue to campaign for the administration to force servicers to write down principal balances on underwater loans. More localized movements are pushing for even more. Hines helped start a Michigan group called Moratorium Now. It's pushing for a total halt on foreclosures in the state for a period of several years--something President Obama supported nationally during his 2008 campaign.

While a moratorium is not a long term fix, "it lets people facing foreclosure get their finances together and figure out what's going on," says Hines. Until the principals of underwater homes are adjusted, it might be the only solution.

"It's easy for people at risk of foreclosure to keep spiraling and spiraling," adds Wilhelmina Leigh, a senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Three years into that spiral, she says, "We still don't have the kind of infrastructure we need to help."

Meanwhile, the recessionary forces are compounding upon one another. Foreclosures stemming from the subprime schemes that swept communities of color have now been largely replaced by foreclosures caused by job losses. "Foreclosures are hitting people who had been doing okay," explains Leigh, "who hadn't gotten an adjustable arm and now they've lost their jobs."

The Labor Department's June jobs report shows unemployment for all Americans remains stuck at just under 10 percent. The number is much higher for Blacks and Latinos, who face 15.4% and 12.4% unemployment respectively. That's compared to 8.6% for whites. And young people of color, single moms, those in the construction industry and those who were in the lowest income bracket even before the downturn are without jobs at even higher rates. Black teenagers are looking at summer unemployment levels of almost 40 percent.

The jobless have not gotten much good news from Washington recently. Congressional deficit hawks defeated a much needed unemployment benefits extension even though 46 percent of the unemployed have been without work for longer than the normal benefits last. More than a million will now be left without a job or income support.

 Sandra Hines urges Chase Bank to help victims of foreclosures at the Chase Bank building in downtown Detroit.

So, community leaders like Hines continue trying to build momentum elsewhere, like here on the streets in Detroit, where last month Hines carried a bullhorn at the front of a crowd of hundreds marching on the Chase Bank building downtown. "Money for jobs, not the banks! Money for education, not the banks! Money for healthcare, not the banks," she chanted, in a sadly familiar refrain.

Later that day, back at her old home, Hines stood on the porch and, spotting an elderly woman in a driveway across the street, lifted her hand to wave. "Hello Miss James," she called.

"This has become a real community," she said.

As she stepped off the porch, a black Dodge truck raced up the road and stopped in front of the house. A man got out and walked quickly over to the lawn.

"What's going on over here?" he asked. "I'm the owner of this house."

"I used to live here for 38 years," Hines replied, staring at the younger man.

"I lived around the corner for 40," he offered, before wishing Hines well and heading back to the car. Hines called after him to dismiss any tension from the awkward exchange. "Ain't no problem with trying to check on your property," she assured her former neighbor. Then she walked next door to say hello to another one-time neighbor, and came out with a few pieces of mail the neighbor had saved for her. "This is where we lived," she said.

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by The Associated Press

The number of homeowners who missed at least one mortgage payment surged to a record in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over.

More than 10 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That number was up from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1 percent a year earlier.

Those figures are adjusted for seasonal factors. For example, heating bills and holiday expenses tend to push up mortgage delinquencies near the end of the year. Many of those borrowers become current on their loans again by spring.

Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the delinquency numbers dropped, as they normally do from the winter to spring.

More than 4.6 percent of homeowners were in foreclosure, also a record. But that number, which is not adjusted for seasonal factors, was up only slightly from the end of last year.

Stocks slid Wednesday as investors remain concerned with the European debt crisis. The rising number of mortgages also drew some attention. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 160 points in early trading.

Jay Brinkmann, the trade group's chief economist, said the foreclosure crisis appears to have stabilized. Seasonal adjustments may be exaggerating the change from the previous quarter, he added.

"I don't see signs now that it's getting worse, but it's going to take a while," he said. "A bad situation that's not getting worse is still bad."

The number of American homeowners who have missed at least three months of payments or are in foreclosure has surged to around 4.3 million, Brinkmann estimated.

The Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has barely dented the problem. More than 299,000 homeowners had received permanent loan modifications as of last month. That's about 25 percent of the 1.2 million who started the program since its March 2009 launch.

About 277,000 homeowners, or 23 percent of those enrolled, have dropped out during a trial phase that lasts at least three months.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. But homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Those borrowers made up nearly 37 percent of new foreclosures in the first quarter of the year, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

The risky subprime adjustable-rate loans that kicked off the foreclosure crisis are making up a smaller share of new foreclosures. They made up 14 percent of new foreclosures in the January-March period, down from 27 percent a year earlier.

FORT MYERS, Fla. –Heated pools, ocean views and media rooms are not what most people would expect to find in a foreclosed property, but more high-end homes – priced at more than a million dollars – have been falling into the hands of banks this year.

Foreclosures of homes worth more than $1 million began increasing at the end of 2009, according to data provided to CNBC.com by foreclosure tracking website RealtyTrac.

Foreclosures reached a high in February 2010, the last month data were available, when 4,169 high-end homes were somewhere in the foreclosure process; having received a foreclosure notice, had an auction scheduled or had ownership taken over by the lender. That's a 121 percent increase from a year ago.

The deterioration comes just as housing experts say that foreclosures in the low and middle ends of the housing market are showing signs of stabilization.

Owners of expensive homes "were able to stave off foreclosure longer," says independent real estate analyst Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting in South Florida. "Lower-end homeowners were the first ones to see the escalating foreclosures, because they generally do not have the cash reserves or credit available that the luxury homeowners do. They had the ability to take their credit cards and pull out thousands of dollars, while the lower-end buyers were already tapped out."

McCabe expects foreclosures in the high-end market will increase into 2011.

Though the RealtyTrac data on high-end homes are not available on a regional or metropolitan basis, anecdotal evidence indicates the problem is cropping up across the country. High-end and luxury categories vary widely from market to market. In some suburban areas, in the Northeast and California, for instance, million-dollar homes are fairly common; but nationwide, they represent 1.1 percent of overall housing stock.

"We have seen an increase, in the million-plus range, of the number of foreclosures and short sales in the greater Chicago area," says Jim Kinney, vice president of luxury home sales at Baird & Warner.

He says that of the 295 million-dollar, single-family properties sold in the first quarter this year, 37 were either a foreclosure or short sale, when a bank and homeowner agree to sell the home for less than the loan is worth. During the same period a year ago, 10 of 231 fell into those categories.

In the Fort Myers, Fla., area, Mike McMurray of McMurray and Nette and the VIP Realty Group says he has seen a few foreclosed high-end homes on the market compared with none last year. He's currently showing a 4,800-square-foot, $3.65 million home on Captiva Island, where foreclosures are usually rare. The bank-owned home has five bedrooms and access to 150 feet of Gulf Coast beachfront.

"There are more we see coming down the pipeline," McMurray says.

Data show that may be the case around the country. The 90-day delinquency rate on home loans worth more than a million dollars hit a high in February at 13.3 percent, above the overall rate of 8.6 percent, according to real estate data firm First American CoreLogic. Foreclosure proceedings generally start after a homeowner has been at least 90 days late on a mortgage payment, experts say.

One difference in the high-end market is that lenders are willing to do more to head off foreclosure by renegotiating the loan or accepting a short-sale transaction, which is essentially a last-ditch effort.

"Lenders are far more likely to go the short-sale route," says Andrew LePage, an analyst at real estate research firm DataQuick. "There's a lot more money at stake, and maintenance can be high if a foreclosure just sits there."

A $1.15 million condominium in Chicago in the landmark Palmolive Building was initially offered as a short sale, but after a buyer did not materialize, it's now owned by the bank, says Janice Corley, founder of Sudler Sotheby's International Realty, which is currently listing it. The condo has lake views and a long list of luxury-building amenities, including a steam room, doorman and gym.

The rise in luxury foreclosures has one Las Vegas real estate agent flying prospective buyers into the city via private jet. Luxury Homes of Las Vegas and JetSuite Air teamed to offer the complimentary trip for buyers flying from Los Angeles to view three foreclosed homes priced between $4.9 million and $6.1 million.

Agent Ken Lowman says he gave three tours over a one-week period and hopes to expand the offer to buyers from other West Coast cities.

There's just too much competition, Lowman says. "It takes an innovative approach like this to get results."

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Joseph Pisani.

MIAMI – May 21, 2010 – More than 40 percent of homeowners with a mortgage say they would consider abandoning an "underwater" property, according to a national online survey released Thursday.

The study conducted this month by Harris Interactive for real estate firms Trulia and RealtyTrac touched on a topic that affects many South Floridians.

More than 371,000 homes in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties were worth less than the mortgage amount at the end of the first quarter, Zillow.com said recently.

Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia, said on a conference call with reporters he "absolutely expects" more homeowners to walk away in the coming years as the stigma of foreclosure fades.

This is the fifth such survey of consumer attitudes since 2008, but the first time questions about underwater mortgages were included, Flint said.

Because South Florida home prices have fallen by more than 40 percent since the peak of the housing boom in 2005, underwater borrowers here may have to stay put for a decade or more until they can break even in a sale, housing experts say.

Some of these homeowners say they're unwilling or unable to wait that long.

RealtyTrac executive Rick Sharga said many borrowers are disgusted with their lenders, feeling as though the banks are "stonewalling" their attempts to seek mortgage modifications and stay in the homes.

"There's a lot of visceral anger at the banks right now," Sharga said, adding that there may be fewer people walking away from homes if they felt lenders were negotiating in good faith.

Lenders insist they are, pointing to the mortgage modification offices they've set up across the country to help borrowers who can demonstrate actual need.

"With people who can afford their payments but their home is worth less than what they owe, that is not considered a hardship," said Nancy Norris, a spokeswoman for banking giant Chase.

Sharga says the nation's housing market is in the process of a "long, slow, relatively flat recovery that probably won't feel much better until about 2013."

The Mortgage Bankers Association issued a report Wednesday that sent mixed signals about delinquencies and foreclosures. Some figures indicating a drop in the rate of distressed loans weren't seasonally adjusted, but other numbers that were adjusted showed minor increases in late payments.

Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the trade group, said in a statement that Florida is getting worse when it comes to delinquencies and foreclosures.

Meanwhile, Sharga and Flint said lenders are doing a good job of managing inventories of foreclosed homes.

RealtyTrac has as many as 800,000 bank-owned homes in its database, but less than 30 percent are for sale. Gradually putting those on the market helps prevent major price declines, Sharga said.

Copyright © 2010 Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Paul Owers. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

CNNMoney.com

Buying a home is the biggest purchase most people will ever make, yet many go into it blind. Here are the 6 most common -- and costly -- mistakes homebuyers make.

1. Not knowing your credit score

If you're even toying with the idea of buying a home, you must find out exactly what your FICO score is. If you find it is less than ideal, wage a systematic campaign to raise it. Too many borrowers ignore this step and get surprised when they get interest rate quotes.

Once you've pored over your credit history and corrected any errors, your next step is to pay down revolving debt balances to no more than 30% usage. That will help raise your score significantly.

Why does it matter?

The lower your score, the higher your costs of borrowing. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for example, charge higher up-front fees to borrowers with credit scores below 740.

For a buyer with a credit score between 680 and 700, the fee comes to 1.5% of the mortgage principal. On a $200,000 mortgage, that adds up to $3,000. Someone with a 740 score pays nothing.

Lower-score borrowers also get saddled with higher interest rates, about 0.4 percentage point more for the below 700 borrower. That costs an extra $62 a month -- $744 a year -- on a $200,000, 30-year, fixed rate loan.

2. Buying a car before a house

Anytime consumers open new credit accounts -- credit card, auto loan, etc. -- their FICO score could drop, according to Craig Watts, a spokesman for Fair Isaac, the creator of FICO scores.

"Hence the admonition to not open other new accounts while your mortgage application is in process," he said.

A big purchase would use up a considerable proportion of a borrower's total credit limit, which results in a drop in the score. Lenders often continue to check credit scores in the weeks before closing.

"The lender will likely slam on the brakes if the applicant's credit scores have suddenly dropped below the minimum required for the requested loan rate," Watts said.

3. Skimping on home inspection

Buying a pig in a poke can cost buyers big bucks -- just when they can least afford it. So It's vital to find all the costly flaws before you buy.

Many homes on the market today are distressed properties -- foreclosures and short sales -- and that only increases the importance of good inspections, according to David Tamny, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors.

"The owners usually didn't have the money to keep up these homes," he said. "There's a lot of deferred maintenance."

A home inspection can find problems with the foundation, electrical, plumbing, roof, attic insulation, and heating and air conditioning. In some states, separate licensed inspectors offer mold or termite inspections.

Often homebuyers, who may be strapped for cash, stint on inspections and look for the cheapest way to go. That can lead to disaster.

"The cost of repairs far exceeds the cost of inspection," said Tamny.

4. No lawyer

Nearly everyone involved in a real estate transaction -- the seller, the buyer's real estate agent, the seller's agent and the mortgage broker -- has a vested interest in getting the deal done because they only get paid when the house is sold. So they may push a deal even if it's not in the best interest of the buyer.

One of the best defenses against making am expensive purchase you'll regret is to hire a real estate attorney -- even in cities where it's not standard practice. These professionals charge flat fees and their advice is objective.

It's nice to have someone on your side.

5. No contingencies

When signing a sales contract, buyers usually have to put up 1% to 3% in "earnest money," which they don't get back if they pull out of the deal except under certain conditions spelled out in the contract.

Sellers try to limit the grounds for canceling, and inexperienced buyers may sign contracts that don't include common exceptions, such as uncovering major problems during the home inspection, failing to obtain financing and failure of the house to appraise.

Failure to obtain financing is common these days because lenders have become very picky; underwriting is very strict.

Even if your mortgage company is still willing to finance your purchase, the house itself may be worth less than you've contracted to pay for it, and the lender will pull its approval.

With residential real estate markets still slow, sellers usually accept contingency clauses, but if they resist, it may be better to rethink the deal. Losing a deposit of $2,000 to $6,000 on a $200,000 home hurts.

6. Not budgeting for insurance

Don't underestimate insurance costs and fail to budget for them.

Many homebuyers don't understand just what is -- and what is not -- covered. Standard policies pay for theft and wind, fire, lightning, hail and explosion damage. Not covered is flooding, earthquake damage or problems caused by neglect of routine maintenance, according to Jeanne Salvatore, spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-sponsored educational group.

"The most important thing is before you buy a home, find out what it will cost to insure it," she said. "Insurance needs to be calculated into the cost of owning a home. Unlike a mortgage, which you can pay off, you'll be responsible for the insurance costs forever."

For flood insurance, most buyers use the National Flood Insurance Program. Earthquake coverage may be available through a state authority or some private companies.

Depending on location, flood insurance can run into a lot of money. The cost of $250,000 worth of government flood coverage on the building and $100,000 of its contents can go as high as $5,714 in high-risk, coastal areas.

By Les Christie, staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mortgage fraud is still on the rise, according to a report released Monday, despite efforts by law enforcement and policy makers to rein it in.

Incidents of mortgage fraud perpetrated by industry professionals increased 7% in 2009, after jumping 26% the year before, said the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), a division of LexisNexis. The worst-hit states include Florida, California, Arizona, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. (See table).

10 Top scam states The places where mortgage fraud hit hardest. Rank State Fraud index for 2009       1 Florida 292 2 New York 217 3 California 159 4 Arizona 158 5 Michigan 136 6 Maryland 136 7 New Jersey 135 8 Georgia 124 9 Illinois 107 10 Virginia 103         Source:Mortgage Asset Research Institute

The jump in mortgage fraud is a troubling trend, given that it played a big role in setting the housing crisis in motion, with mortgage professionals doing things like listing false income claims for borrowers, and overstating a home's appraised value.

And the statistics may not capture the entire picture, according to Jennifer Butts of LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research, since fraud isn't usually detected until a loan goes bad.

"We believe that mortgage fraud is significantly understated," said Butts.

Mortgage fraud hot spots

Florida was the worst hit state, according to MARI, with a mortgage fraud index reading of 292. That means the Sunshine State had nearly three times the expected level of fraud given the number of loans issued there. A score of 100 would indicate the state had exactly the amount of fraud expected and a score of 0 would mean no fraud at all.

Although Florida's reading was the highest in the nation, it was still a huge improvement over 2008, when it was 430.

New York was the second worst state for mortgage fraud with a mortgage fraud index reading (MFI) of 217, up 14% from 2008. California was next at 159 and Arizona was fourth with 158.

New York's second place ranking was primarily due to illegal activity in the New York City metropolitan area. The Big Apple had the highest rate of mortgage fraud of any metro area in the nation, while Los Angeles came in second and Chicago third.

The report described several types of fraud that were detected most often. These include so-called "liar" loans, in which mortgage professionals knowingly listed false income claims for borrowers; inflated appraisals, in which mortgage loan officers or brokers pressure appraisers to overvalue a home so it would qualify for a bigger mortgage; and false occupancy claims, which is when buyers claim they will live in a home but are actually buying it for investment purposes.

The nature of fraud has changed somewhat since the housing bust, according to Denise James of LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "New trends continue to emerge," she said.

With the explosion in foreclosures in many U.S. communities, for example, foreclosure rescue scams are proliferating.

One example of this kind of crime occurs when scam artists convince distressed owners to sign over their deeds, which the scammers claim they need to keep the homes out of foreclosure.

The scammers then turn around and sell the homes to straw buyers, financing the sales with inflated appraisals. They get, say, an appraisal of $100,000 for a house worth $30,000. When the deal closes, they take the cash and walk away, failing to make any payments. That sticks the banks with properties worth far less than they gave out in mortgage loans.

The growing rate of mortgage fraud could exacerbate the country's foreclosure problem. The United States is already on course to have more than a million homes lost to foreclosure in 2010.