Now, as credit tightens, F.H.A. is the sudden star of the nation’s housing market. In September alone, it endorsed over 96,000 new home loans, more than triple the number it approved in the same month last year, federal data shows. But some housing industry experts worry that F.H.A. may soon be hit by a wave of mortgage-related fraud and abuse that it is ill prepared to deal with.
Over the years, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees F.H.A., has been slow to weed out mortgage lenders that abuse or defraud the agency and profit through means like certifying unqualified borrowers. There are also growing concerns that subprime fraud artists have set their sights on F.H.A. “It looks like an incoming tsunami,” said HUD’s inspector general, Kenneth M. Donohue.
The fallout for both homeowners and taxpayers could be substantial if F.H.A. becomes the next housing domino to teeter.
