Home fraud still broad.

• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS

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The 2010 Census shows the percentage of Americans who own their own home (65.1 percent) at the second highest level ever, just behind what it was in 2000 (66.2 percent). Yet mortgage fraud continued at high levels in 2010 despite improvements in various economic sectors and financial institutions, according to the FBI's "2010 Mortgage Fraud Report: Year in Review," released in August.

Mortgage fraud involves misstating, misrepresenting or omitting information needed by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase or insure a loan. This type of fraud is called "loan origination schemes." Fraud can also be targeted at consumers, in the form of foreclosure rescues, short sales and loan modifications. The FBI warns that because of "foreclosures, housing prices, contracting financial markets, and tighter lending practices by financial institutions" the housing market is "still in distress and providing ample opportunities for fraud."

Mortgage fraud in 2010 was most prevalent in California, followed by Florida, New York, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Maryland and New Jersey, according to the FBI. That's the same...