Mortgage Fraud Risk Down 5.6% in Q2

Mortgage fraud risk declined year-over-year in the second quarter, though fraudulent activity was up slightly on a quarterly basis.

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""CoreLogic"":http://www.corelogic.com/ released Wednesday its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Report, which measures overall fraud activity based on the company's Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index. The report also examines fraud data within six specific indexes: income, occupancy, employment, identity, property, and undisclosed debt.

According to CoreLogic's data, fraud risk among mortgage applications declined 5.6 percent year-over-year in Q2, with approximately 19,700 (0.8 percent) of mortgage applications being flagged as having a high risk of fraud. [COLUMN_BREAK]

In Q2 2012, the company identified 20,900 high-risk applications, which represented about 0.7 percent of all applications tracked.

Quarter-over-quarter, fraudulent application volume was relatively flat from Q1.

In dollar volume, fraudulent mortgage loan applications totaled an estimated $5.3 billion nationally, down from $5.5 billion last year but up slightly from $5.2 billion in the first quarter.

""Since the beginning of 2012, mortgage application fraud risk has totaled more than $30 billion nationally,"" said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. ""While the propensity toward application fraud risk has declined based on our index, as the housing market recovers, the volume of mortgage applications is rising and increasing the total amount of fraudulent mortgage loan application dollars.""

The total dollar amount of fraudulent mortgage loan applications increased in 27 states compared to the prior quarter, CoreLogic reported. The states with the highest estimated value of fraudulent applications were California ($864 million), New York ($278 million), Florida ($273 million), Texas ($261 million), and Virginia ($231 million).

Year-over-year, Ohio saw the highest rise in application fraud risk at 30.1 percent, followed by Hawaii (19.6 percent), Kentucky (16.6 percent), Connecticut (15.0 percent), and Alaska (13.8 percent).