American Banker, June 3, 2022, As mortgage market cools, fraud risk heats up
Jason Richardson, the senior director of research for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said it is difficult to quantify the distortionary effects of mortgage fraud on the overall housing market given the myriad issues limiting affordability and attainability.
Still, Richardson said, some of the markets that have seen the sharpest increases in prices have been those favored by investors over owner-occupants. He pointed to Tampa, Florida, which he said has seen a greater level of investment activity than it did at the height of the 2000s housing bubble.
“They’re all going to be Airbnbs,” he said. “The prices don’t make sense for anything else. You look at the median income of Florida and then you look at what the houses are going for, those aren’t Floridians that are buying them. Those are investors.”
