Register Real Estate Advisors

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Dallas 75201 may be a posh ZIP code — home to the Arts District, skyscrapers and part of Uptown — but it was also North Texas’ biggest hot spot for mortgage fraud from 2005 to 2009.

 According to a recent CoreLogic study commissioned by the Dallas Morning News, more than 13 percent of mortgages for homes in that area were fraudulent. Usually, the fraud occurred when buyers lied about their income or identity when purchasing pricey condos, or when investors claimed they would live in the units when they had no plans to do so.

 Among the other mortgage fraud hot spots were Fair Park (75210), sections of south Dallas (75203 and 75216), the Collin County suburb of Prosper (75078) and far southeast Dallas (75253).

 For the entire DFW area, CoreLogic estimates that less than a quarter of a percent of the home loans made during the five-year period were fraudulent. That works out to about 22 cents for every $100 in loans.

 The national average is .55 percent, or 55 cents out of $100. That number more than triples in Orlando, Miami, Atlanta and Detroit.

No Texas cities made CoreLogic’s list of the top 20 U.S. locations for home loan fraud.

BEAUMONT (Beaumont Enterprise) – Beaumont is expected to lead the nation in home price appreciation over the next year, says Veros Real Estate Solutions.

According to the California-based company, the Beaumont–Port Arthur market will increase in value by 5 percent in 2010. Veros put the median price of a single-family home at $138,000. A 5 percent increase would be $6,900.

The company analyzed data from about 900 urban counties across the United States.

Last year, Forbes magazine rated the Beaumont market as number one for most equity among U.S. cities.