Mortgage fraud risk dropped an astonishing 26.3% in the second quarter of 2020, according to CoreLogic’s Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index.

Only one in every 164 applications (0.6%) had indications of fraud, down from one in 123 (0.8%) in the second quarter of 2019. That’s largely due to record-low interest rates and a strong spike in lower-risk refinance originations, the report notes.

“The large drop in fraud risk in the past year was primarily driven by record-high refinancing, which is traditionally lower risk transactions,” Bridget Berg, principal of fraud solutions strategy for CoreLogic, said in a press release. “However, we still see elevated levels of risk in purchase transactions, and we have not yet seen the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s imperative risk managers remain vigilant in searching out potential fraud.”

Occupancy fraud risk was the only segment to increase year-over-year with an increase of 25.8% from a year ago, according to the report,

The full report is available online here.

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