Short Sales Fraud Costs Lenders $310 Million

Lenders lost about $310 million in the last two years unnecessarily because of short sale fraud in one out of 53 short sale transactions, according to CoreLogic. That's not a big surprise when you consider that short sales are up 700 percent compared to just two years ago.

Over half of all short sales (55.8 percent) during 2009 and 2010 happened in four states: California, Florida, Texas and Arizona. As job growth remains slow and housing prices remain weak, CoreLogic projects this trend will continue to be a significant factor for the mortgage marketplace.

CoreLogic looked at 250,000 short sale transactions since 2008 as part if its study. CoreLogic's database includes 98 percent of all real estate transactions and 85 percent of existing mortgages.