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Chimera Investment Corp., a New York-based real estate investment trust, announced plans to buy non-QM lender HomeXpress Mortgage in a cash-and-stock deal worth over $120 million Thursday.The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, includes a $120 million cash payment for the Santa Ana, California-based company, plus more than 2 million shares of Chimera stock.Following the closing of the transaction, the non-QM shop will operate as a subsidiary of Chimera and will continue to be run by its CEO Kyle Walker. HomeXpress Mortgage, founded in 2015, operates in both wholesale and correspondent channels and is licensed in 46 states and Washington, D.C. It employs just over 300 people. Since 2016, the non-QM and non-agency shop has originated more than $10.7 billion in loans. The REIT estimates the soon-to-be-acquired firm will originate nearly $3.5 billion in 2025, after originating $2.5 billion in 2024. HomeXpress also creates mortgage servicing rights, which Chimera plans to retain as an investment and possibly use as a tool to pull in future origination business."By retaining service, combined with our servicing oversight capabilities, HomeXpress would be able to maintain its relationships with the borrowers and present opportunities to provide additional products including second lien mortgages," Chimera wrote in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.HomeXpress Mortgage is expected to give Chimera additional prowess in the non-QM space. HomeXpress' origination capabilities paired with the investment firm's "ability to manage, finance and securitize non-QM loans will create a powerful platform," Chimera's SEC filing said. The REIT estimates that the payback period on the investment will be a little over two years.Chimera noted it has nearly $1 billion worth of non-qualified mortgages on its balance sheet as well as manages close to $20 billion of non-QM loans for third parties via its acquisition of The Palisades Group last year.The REITs CEO Phillip Kardis II called the deal a "strategic acquisition, mark[ing] a significant expansion of Chimera's presence in the non-QM space, reinforcing its role as a leading real estate investment trust." Piper Sandler & Co. acted as the exclusive financial advisor to HomeXpress and to Seer Capital Management, which has a significant ownership stake in the firm. Wells Fargo acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Chimera.

Mortgage rates continued to operate in the same low 6.8% range they have been in for most of the past two months since a 21 basis point spike in mid-April, according to Freddie Mac.The 30-year fixed rate mortgage declined 1 basis point as of June 12 from one week prior, to 6.84%, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported. A year ago at this time, it was at 6.95%.Meanwhile, the 15-year FRM was 2 basis points lower, to 5.97% from the week of June 6. For the same week in 2024, it was at 6.17%."Mortgage rates have moved within a narrow range for the past few months and this week is no different," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist, in a press release. "Rate stability, improving inventory and slower house price growth are an encouraging combination as we celebrate National Homeownership Month." Since the 30-year FRM rose to 6.83% for the week of April 17, it has been between 6.81% and 6.86% with three exceptions: The weeks of May 1 and 8, when it was at 4.76%, and May 29, when the rate rose to 6.89%.This stability in the 30-year FRM "continues to bring reassurance to those navigating today's spring and summer homebuying market," said Samir Dedhia, CEO of One Real Mortgage in a comment.How other rate trackers look compared with one-week priorOther rate measurements were mixed in their week-to-week changes.The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Application Survey for the period ended June 6 reported a 1 basis point increase in the 30-year FRM to 6.93%.Lender Price data on the National Mortgage News website as of 11 a.m. on June 12, put the 30-year FRM at 6.922%, compared with 6.902% one week earlier.Zillow's rate tracker put the 30-year at 6.91% at that time, down 1 basis point on the day and 8 basis points lower than the previous week's average of 6.99%, although on June 5 at 11 a.m., it was also at 6.91%.But Optimal Blue's data is more indicative of the trends over the past few days. For June 5, it put the 30-year FRM at 6.813%. It rose over the next two business days to top out at 6.874% on June 9 before dropping back down to 6.835% as of June 11.The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.38%, 3 basis points lower than its Wednesday close of 4.41%. While flat with the 4.39% close on June 5, the following day, the yield spiked to 4.51%.What drove mortgage rate movements this week?Over the past week, intraday volatility in mortgage rates was driven by economic data releases, Kara Ng, Zillow senior economist, said in a June 11 blog post. "On June 6, a stronger-than-expected jobs report briefly pushed rates higher, while the June 11 [Consumer Price Index] report showing slowing inflation nudged them lower," she wrote.Zillow economists are among those that expect the 30-year to finish the year near the mid-6% point, as the economy "slightly" cools."However, inflation pressures from de-globalization and elevated fiscal deficits will likely limit any significant drop," Ng said."Recent political chatter around privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has also introduced additional uncertainty," Ng continued. "While no official policy shift has happened yet, the possibility could exert upward pressure on mortgage rates as investors seek higher returns to offset increased risk."

Figure Technology Solutions has announced a blockchain-based home-equity line of credit securitization that it says is the first to receive a AAA rating from a major rating agency, broadening its investor base.Standard & Poor's ratings for the $355 million, six-tranche deal, FIGRE 2025-HE3, range from a top AAA to B-minus, which is a low-end speculative grade category. The forward-delivery securitization follows a prefunded one, FIGRE 2025-PF1. S&P involvement in the latest securitization allows more AAA investors who require one of the "big three" players to rate the bonds before they'll buy them. S&P looked for strong loan performance indicators and operations in rating the deal. "There are investors whose mandate is not to buy unless there is at least one triple-A from a major and so in doing so, we've increased liquidity and lowered costs for our marketplace," Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum said in an interview. (Fitch and Moody's are the other two majors.)The securitization was oversubscribed and drew over 30 unaffiliated buyers, including insurers and asset managers. Around 15 were AAA investors.All the collateral came from a blockchain-based marketplace Figure uses to buy loans from third-party lenders."Because we use blockchain, we do things a little bit differently. So It's a big deal to get a rating agency like an S&P to give a triple-A to that process," Tannenbaum said.S&P noted that among the features of the transaction is the use of a "proprietary digital lien matching process using third-party data sources to determine previous lien amounts and to determine lien position" as a title insurance alternative.HELOCs in the deal, which are fixed-rate products that reset when a draw is made, are secured by a mix of both first and subordinate liens. S&P made adjustments in its ratings based on the absence of title insurance for first liens in the pool. First-lien HELOCs constituted just 70 of the 4,368 in the collateral pool. The bulk, or 4,090 of the HELOCs, are second liens.Figure has been involved in HELOC securitization since 2023 and launched its marketplace for private credit loans in 2024. The previous prefunded transaction followed the formation of a $200 million joint-venture partnership with global investment firm Sixth Street, allowing for a diversification of secondary market strategies."We're basically just trying to add lots of options, lots of liquidity," Tannenbaum said.

In the race to capture home equity line of credit customers, non-bank lenders say they have plenty to offer compared to their larger competitors.All mortgage players are staring at a lucrative HELOC opportunity in the next two years with soaring equity alongside stale mortgage rates and rising consumer debt. While homeowners who secured ultra-low mortgage rates during the pandemic are shying away from today's weighty rates, introductory rates on the second liens are only getting more attractive.Read more about home equity loans here.Depositories and credit unions historically dominate the space, and accounted for over 90% of HELOC originations last year, according to Transunion. Although independent mortgage banks account for just a fraction of the origination activity, experts say the financial institutions have plenty to offer versus the traditional mortgage lenders. "You're not going to go head-to-head with a bank on price, ever," said Phil Crescenzo, a South Carolina-based branch manager with Nation One Mortgage. "We beat them in creativity, we beat them in speed, we beat them in efficiency, we beat them in product strength."How banks and IMBs originate HELOCs differentlyMany banks are putting the loans on their portfolio and can price accordingly, without worrying about the secondary market to fund them, said Jay Plum, head of mortgage at Fifth Third Bank."When banks do consider doing different credit tiers, they're going to be a little bit more flexible for existing customers, and that would extend to better credit tiers as well," he said. Depositories can also offer low or no fees and lower mortgage rates. The banks are motivated to go low to sell customers on additional products; Cresenczo suggested a hypothetical scenario where a bank could offer a HELOC rate of prime-minus-1%, versus an IMB offering a prime-plus-3%.On the other hand, IMBs could offer niche products versus what a customer's bank is offering. An IMB could stretch its underwriting capacity a bit further, capping a borrower's combined loan-to-value ratio at 90%, whereas bank may only be willing to go to 80%, said Cresenczo. "If I need to reach a certain goal, I might be more open-minded to slightly higher costs with a more creative product," he said. The veteran originator also mentioned other flexibilities, such as an IMB loan officer's around-the-clock accessibility when compared to their brick-and-mortar-based counterparts. Competition on a faster time to originateHELOC originations could still take over a month to complete, no matter the institution. Some technology oriented lenders have touted offerings that could deliver the lines of credit to borrowers within days. Figure Technology Solutions, a prolific HELOC originator, also promotes origination costs under $1,000 per loan. The company white-labels its HELOC solution, and Anthony Stratis, the company's vice president of lending partnerships, said he's seen equal enthusiasm for its product from both banks and IMBs."I think part of the challenge for [banks and credit unions] is that a loan that doesn't have a balance has no economics in it," he said. "And so utilization is something they definitely look at, or think about how they can pick that up."The company says its product is fully drawn, and offers a quick solution for consumers eying quick debt consolidation. Stratis added that HELOCs' minimal delinquency figures make the loan attractive in the secondary market. According to TransUnion, 89% of HELOC borrowers are drawing on their lines of credit within the first six months of originating, while overall 57% of borrowers have used more than 20% of their available credit. Banks and IMBs have a (mostly) aligned market outlookThe second-lien lending opportunity is largely spurred by homeowners' rising equity, estimated by Intercontinental Exchange to be $17.6 trillion between 48 million homeowners. While homeowners enjoyed periods of 20% annual growth in the early decade, home price growth has slowed, and in some markets have moved backward. Lending veterans said they're not concerned with the lack of gains in home values. "Folks have seen such dramatic increases in values, that it's going to take a pretty big correction for them to change their mind that they don't have available equity," said Plum. "They've got a lot."Cresenzco suggested some lenders could decide to limit HELOC underwriting in areas where home values are declining, similar to around the time of the Great Financial Crisis, although he's not aware of any industry peers who've done so today. Lenders also highlighted the nation's rising consumer debt woes — including cumbersome interest rates on credit and auto loans — as more reason to draw on a comparatively attractive HELOC loan. While a recent VantageScore report found credit distress shrinking month-over-month in April, student and auto loans presented some rising challenges. Stratis pointed to an example of a borrower cutting their 22% interest rate on a credit card in a third with an 8% HELOC."Never mind the fact that the terms on an average HELOC are 30 years," he said. "So if your objective is to manage your payment, you can be even more impactful."

Mortgage lender Lower and Residential Wholesale Mortgage moved to settle a poaching suit filed in a federal Texas court earlier this year.Details regarding the terms are sparse from a notice filed by Lower May 16, however, it wraps up litigation over Residential allegedly poaching employees that Lower acquired via its Thrive Mortgage acquisition. The suit was pending for less than three months prior to settlement.The original complaint filed by Lower in March accused Residential Wholesale Mortgage of "aiding and abetting" several of its employees in poaching 17 workers, allegedly causing the company "irreparable harm." The Ohio-based company was seeking $75,000 in damages.Two of Lower's former employees, who purportedly orchestrated the departure, are still employed with RWM, a check of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System shows.Both parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Lower has moved to also sue New American Funding over similar claims in February, though that litigation is still pending as of June 11.Lower's complaint claims its former branch manager, Andrew Steven Kolmeier, and New American Funding "colluded...to solicit 12 other Lower employees, whom Kolmeier supervised, to leave Lower and join NAF – which they all did on the same day," Lower claims. The employees were also originally brought onboard via the Thrive Mortgage acquisition.Most recently, NAF, filed a motion to dismiss the suit pegged against it with prejudice because the firm claims Lower has "failed to allege specific facts that would be sufficient to plausibly suggest the existence a trade secret, any act of misappropriation, or any resulting harm under the Defend Trade Secrets Act," a filing from May 19 states.The two complaints filed against NAF and RWM show that, combined, at least 30 Thrive Mortgage employees left to Lower competitors at the beginning of the year. The purchase of Georgetown, Texas-based Thrive was expected to boost Lower's production. In 2023, Thrive originated nearly $1.42 billion in loans, while Lower originated $1.88 billion, according to data from Modex.When the acquisition was announced, Lower CEO Dan Snyder said his company was "building a better approach to mortgage" and added, "Thrive is an award-winning, national lender with the same belief, and we're excited to bring them onto our platform." However, the recent suits suggest there may be some retention challenges. Mortgage stakeholders, including former Lower Chief Growth Officer Amir Syed, have publicly criticized the mortgage lender for lodging litigation against Thrive members departing the firm."These filings, which are part of the public record, spark important industry-wide conversations about leadership, integrity, and long-term trust. It's a conversation we must keep having — openly, constructively, and without fear," Syed said in a previous interview.

Mortgage rates came down after a softer-than-expected CPI print.But only a little bit. Instead of a 30-year fixed quote of 7%, you might see 6.875% instead.It’s not a big difference, but it does provide some savings as buyers grapple with poor affordability.Problem is rates continue to stay in a range and can’t break meaningfully lower with so many unknowns still unresolved.Weak data is great for rates, but can only do so much when tariff impact is yet to be seen.CPI Cools, Pushing Mortgage Rates Back Away from 7%The much anticipated CPI report came in favorably for mortgage rates yesterday.Prices rose just 0.1% in May, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), down from 0.2% in April.The monthly tally also beat the 0.2% forecast.At the same time, prices climbed 2.4% annually, which was in line with expectations.Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, beat expectations both by month and by year.That led to a bit of a bond rally, with the 10-year yield falling about six basis points to 4.41%.It was enough to push mortgage rates down to around 6.875% from closer to 7%.Certainly good news for prospective home buyers after a hot jobs report last Friday.But not enough to make a huge impact. For your typical homeowner it’s a negligible difference in monthly payment.The issue at hand is tariffs, which have yet to be resolved or reflected in the consumer price data.VP Vance Calls for Interest Rate CutsMeanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and others in calling for rate cuts.On X, he said, “The refusal by the Fed to cut rates is monetary malpractice.”Problem is, how can they with an ongoing trade war that has yet to be resolved?Arguably, if the tariffs were never introduced, the Fed may have cut by now.Or would be at the next meeting. Instead, they have pushed back more and more due to uncertainty.What began as three rate cuts this year is now maybe none.And the irony in asking for rate cuts is that they wouldn’t need to ask if not for their own policy.The Fed’s hands are tied because even if inflation is lower, it might rise again due to the tariffs.So asking for rate cuts after potentially exacerbating inflation is like saying you’re going on a diet (but doing the opposite) then asking for dessert.Crude analogy, but the best I could come up with.End of the day, the Fed would lower rates if it could, but it can’t because of tariff unknowns.In addition, the Fed doesn’t even control mortgage rates, so it wouldn’t necessarily help anyway. Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. announced Wednesday it has acquired the assets of Hallmark Home Mortgage, a Fort Wayne, Indiana-based mortgage lender.As part of the transaction, Hallmark will become a new division of Fairway and will operate under a revised brand: Hallmark Home Mortgage, powered by Fairway. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Hallmark's CEO Deborah Sturges, a long-time acquaintance of Fairway's founder, will join the full-service mortgage lender as its president. Sturges and Fairway founder and CEO Steve Jacobson previously worked together at Waterfield Financial Corp. and maintained contact over the years, making "this partnership a natural fit," a press release reads. "Our shared vision will make us even stronger together," Jacobson said in a statement Wednesday.Sturges, on the other hand, noted the acquisition will benefit the midwestern-based shop by giving it access to operational support and better technology."This strategic decision brings Fairway's expanded product portfolio, enhanced technology, and deep support resources into Hallmark's orbit," said Hallmark's Sturges in a press release. "To reconnect with my former colleague Steve Jacobson is truly exciting. This partnership puts both companies in the best position to grow, innovate, and lead."Though the firm has actively recruited originators to grow its ranks, the firm has been quiet on the acquisition front, especially compared to its competitors.According to one mortgage advisor, the move to purchase Hallmark may have been part of a strategy to give Fairway more footing in the Midwest without having to build out the infrastructure needed to grow market share.Hallmark Home Mortgage, licensed in 20 states, sponsors 45 loan officers, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. Wisconsin-based Fairway, on the other hand, is licensed in all 50 states and has a headcount of 2,474 sponsored originators.In 2024, Fairway originated $24.51 billion in total volume, per its website.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman.Bloomberg News Newly minted Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman is aiming to do something that escaped both her predecessors: finalize the U.S. implementation of the so-called Basel III framework. In her first speech since being confirmed to the central bank's top regulatory role, Bowman outlined an approach to capital reform that lawyers and academics say could enable her to succeed where others fell short. In particular, Bowman's announcement that the Fed will host a conference next month to discuss the various components of its capital framework has been greeted as a sign of a more collaborative and deliberative approach than the one taken by regulators under the Biden administration. "We will bring together bankers, academics, and other capital experts to examine whether capital requirements as currently structured and calibrated are operating as intended — in a complementary fashion," Bowman said last week. "I welcome the opportunity to consider a broader range of perspectives as we look to the future of capital framework reforms."David Zaring, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, said Bowman seems to be setting up for something akin to a negotiated rulemaking — also known as "reg-neg" approach — in which agencies attempt to address potential issues through direct engagement with stakeholders before a proposal is formally introduced. The tactic has been used with varying degrees of effectiveness in historically more litigated regulatory fields, including education and environmental protection. Zaring said the idea is to reach a consensus on the main thrust of a rule change then use the notice-and-comment process for fine-tuning. He added this would be a significant change from the 2023 Basel endgame proposal."I thought the prior approach was to … come up with a bunch of ideas that might be implemented ideally and then, through the rulemaking process, get sufficient pull back to trim the most politically unpalatable parts of the rule down. That seemed to be the gambit," he said. "That's very much not what a reg-neg approach looks like."Earlier this year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that regulators could finalize a Basel III endgame implementation "fairly quickly," noting that the agencies had already put substantial work into an amended version of the 2023 proposal. Previous Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr previewed that scaled-down proposal last September, but an impasse with other bank regulators ultimately kept it from crossing the finish line.Bowman's comments suggest an entirely new approach to international risk-capital standards, one that is carried out alongside changes to large bank stress testing, leverage ratios and capital surcharge applied to the nation's largest banks. Like Quarles, her goal is to carry out these changes without increasing aggregate capital requirements on large banks.While the Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will likely draw from the voluminous public feedback from 2023, Alison Hashmall, a partner at the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said she expects regulators to launch a totally new process, including a new request for information from affected banks. Hashmall said one of the critical errors of the previous batch of regulators was initiating a data collection process after putting the rule out for comment."That made it impossible to do a proper, data-driven cost-benefit analysis and, ultimately, the pushback on that caused an insurmountable delay in the rulemaking process," she said. "Having that dialogue early in the process is critical."Bowman has long championed the importance of cost-benefit analysis. The subject featured prominently in a speech on "approaching policymaking pragmatically" from last November. She also frequently criticized the previous Basel endgame proposal for what she saw as a lack of economic impact analysis. But matters of process are not the only lessons to be learned from Bowman's predecessors. There are also matters of timing and institutional capacity. "Four years is both a lot of time and not that much time," said Chen Xu, a financial regulation lawyer at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.In his farewell address in December 2021, then-Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles listed Basel finalization as a key piece of business that he would have to leave unfinished because of his term limit. He pointed to the sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as an unsurmountable hurdle in his efforts to complete the implementation."I had hoped that the U.S. would have led the world in setting out a concrete proposal to implement the Basel III endgame by the end of last year," Quarles said. "But the intervention of COVID set back that timetable, and although we are working hard with the other banking agencies to iron out the last issues, our proposal will have to come after my departure."Barr faced his own time- and attention-sucking incidents, including the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 and the ensuing crisis among similarly-sized institutions. Coupled with a late arrival to the Federal Reserve Board — President Joe Biden's initial pick for the Fed's top cop failed to make it out of the Senate Banking Committee, resulting in the position being vacant for more than year — the episode left Barr with little time and political capital with which to implement his reform agenda. Barr's resignation at the end of February in the face of political pressure cemented his lack of regulatory progress. Bowman, on the other hand, has been installed as the Fed's chief regulator earlier in this administration than Barr or Quarles during their respective terms. She also has a long tenure at the Fed under her belt and shared objectives with the heads of other regulatory agencies. All of this bodes well for her ability to accomplish her full agenda, Xu said. "She definitely has enough time to get what she wants done," he said. "I want to be cautiously optimistic here — who knows what politics can bring — but it seems like all the agencies are heading in the same direction. They're not rowing against each other as they were."

Mortgage applications picked up last week, according to the most recent numbers put out by the Mortgage Bankers Association, offering optimism for a real estate market that has been facing a prolonged period of economic uncertainty.The Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly Mortgage Composite Index showed applications up a seasonally adjusted 12.5% from the week before, the first week-over-week increase in a month. The survey, which measures loan application volume across the country, showed that applications for both refinancing and new home purchases were up for the week ending June 6.Buyers seemed undeterred even by a slight uptick in mortgage rates during the period, with the average 30-year fixed rate rising one basis point to 6.93% from the week before. Applications for refinancing were up 16% from the week before while new purchase applications were up a seasonally adjusted 10%. Compared to the same period last year, refinancing applications have jumped 28% while purchase applications were up 20%.That increase comes as some cities, particularly in the South and West, are seeing more available inventory. It's a positive sign for a market that has seen many buyers hold back from making major purchases. "Despite ongoing uncertainty surrounding the economy, homebuyers seem to be taking advantage of loosening housing inventory in certain markets," said Joel Kan, MBA's vice president and deputy chief economist, in a press release.Borrowers showed an increased appetite for refinancing as that share of applications increased 35.2% to 36.7% of total applications. The share of adjustable-rate mortgages also increased to 7.2% of the total. Meanwhile, interest rates for FHA and 15-year fixed-rate loans both fell. The average contract interest rate for FHA-backed loans fell 8 basis points to 6.60% while the rate for 15-year fixed rate mortgages fell 9 basis points to 6.16%. The report hints at a reprieve for an industry facing headwinds. Last month saw large numbers of buyers choosing to cancel their purchases as well as the worst April for home sales since 2009. But in keeping with the MBA applications report, a Fannie Mae survey on consumer sentiment released this week recorded an increased sense of optimism, with positive purchase sentiment up by seven percentage points from April and 24 percentage points when compared to May 2024.

Mortgage scam reports have soared in recent years, opposite of the housing market's slowdown.The industry as of April was reporting 71 mortgage scams per month, up from just 14 per month in 2022 at the tail-end of the refinance boom, according to BackOffice Pro, a business services organization. While real estate companies disclosed losses in just 12% of incidents, the average financial hit was $16,829.The majority, or 53.3% of those cases involved phishing, in which fraudsters impersonated title companies, lenders or real estate agents to redirect wire transfers in the homebuying process. The finding coincides with the FBI's recent cybercrime report, which highlighted phishing as the most common internet crime in 2024. Other leading mortgage scams, according to BackOffice Pro, include fake invoices and advance fee loans, a scheme in which a consumer never receives the loan they "paid" for. Real estate companies seldom admit they've suffered fraud, and less often disclose the losses tied to those incidents. BackOffice Pro analyzed the Better Business Bureau's Scam Tracker database for mortgage-related fraud between 2015 to 2025, focusing on 670 verified reports. The findings are also unrelated to quarterly mortgage critical defect rates, which are on the decline according to Aces Quality Management. The errors in income and employment verification, and legal and compliance data entry don't always correspond to fraudulent activity.Why and where mortgage scams are occurringThe BackOffice Pro analysis blamed rising mortgage scams on tougher market conditions, which are forcing some borrowers and lenders to falsify documentation to qualify, and on artificial intelligence, which criminals can use to tailor phishing emails and identities. While Florida had the most reported mortgage scams, the highest total losses were in Georgia. Although just 28 cases were reported in the Peach State, real estate companies disclosed $423,550 in total losses there. The states with the most cases, and highest losses, were the nation's largest markets in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. "We're seeing a pattern where scammers strike fewer victims — but extract more value from each success," said Rajeev Kumar, executive vice president of BackOffice Pro, in a press release. "This isn't random, it's calculated."The company called on lenders to adopt stronger scam protections, including mandatory multi-step verification for all wire transfers. Fraud detection and prevention has been a priority for the Trump administration, as the Federal Housing Finance Agency has deployed an anti-fraud campaign under Director Bill Pulte. The regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has rolled out a mortgage fraud tip line and recently announced an anti-fraud effort with technology giant Palantir, among other efforts.