Appraisal Fraud Jumps 50% in 2009: MARI

The Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), whose subscribers represent 70% of the mortgage finance space, reports today appraisal fraud is taking a larger proportion of trickery alleged in suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

In 2008, suspected appraisal/valuation fraud stood at 22% of mortgage fraud reports. In 2009, that jumped to 33%, said MARI in a conference call on its yearly results.