Florida Tops Mortgage Fraud List

As a Floridian, I’m about as embarrassed by this as I was the 2000 election results, but anyway…

The Sunshine State accounts for “nearly a quarter of all mortgage fraud incidents” according to the Mortgage Asset Research Institute.

Misrepresentation of income, job history, debt and assets are all factors contributing to the most common fraud cases. It’s a pretty big deal because “mortgage fraud has represented about $1 billion in losses over the last decade.” Since Florida and California are two states with a high number of speculators, it’s no wonder they figure number one and number two on this list.