Mortgage Foreclosure & Refinance Resource

According to the USA Today, the FBI opened 1,210 mortgage fraud cases in fiscal year 2007, nearly triple the number of new cases in 2003. Convictions more than doubled from 123 in the 2006 fiscal year to 260 in 2007.

“We expect that number to increase again in 2008,” says FBI financial crimes section chief Sharon Ormsby.

Foreclosure rates for homes purchased using non-standard, high-interest loans have reached historic highs around the USA. States and communities, confronting unoccupied homes and decreasing property values, are trying to curb abusive lending practices before they snare would-be home buyers and rescue homeowners already caught in the crisis.

At least eight states— Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina and Rhode Island — passed laws in 2007 to curtail predatory lending.

Baltimore last week sued Wells Fargo Bank in federal court for allegedly steering black home buyers into high-interest loans with non-traditional terms. The lawsuit says the city is facing an “unprecedented crisis” of mortgage foreclosures in predominantly black communities. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said in a statement those foreclosures are depressing property values and decreasing tax revenue. Wells Fargo, in a statement, denied the charges. Early this year, the Senate banking committee plans to consider legislation by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., that bars mortgages that include financial penalties for people who want to refinance and pay off their debt early.