Fresh Loaf

In late 2007, Georgia Tech professor Dan Immergluck released a study that added numbers to a sneaking suspicion: Property taxes were rising fast along the southern half of the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit planned to circle Atlanta’s urban core, and posing a problem for longtime residents unable to afford the uptick.

The study served as a reminder that for all its promises of parks, streetcars and smart-growth development, the Beltline could potentially cause displacement and gentrification — and have a negative impact on the neighborhoods the project is designed to help.

Immergluck’s followed up the study with Foreclosed!, a new book about the origins and aftershocks of the nationwide housing market meltdown.

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Rhode Island, Florida and Illinois top the list. The Washington Post reports:

Fraud jumped by 26 percent in 2008 from the previous year, the study concluded, based on data collected from roughly 70 percent of the nation’s lenders as well as mortgage insurance companies and mortgage investors. The study was prepared by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, an arm of LexisNexis, for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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Next on the list were Illinois, Georgia and Maryland, which landed among the top 10 for the first time in the study’s 11-year history and stood out as having the highest percentage of fraud on tax returns and financial statements. It shot up from the 15th slot in 2007.

“With fewer loan originations today, the data suggest that the economic downturn may have created more desperation, causing more people than ever before to try to commit mortgage fraud,” said Denise James, one of the study’s authors.

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In light of the questions about special mortgage deals Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., received from embattled Countrywide Financial Corp., Politico has surveyed the lawmakers’ colleagues to inquire about their mortgages. Of those surveyed, 23 senators have yet to respond.

Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, however, did.

Chambliss says he took out a mortgage 15 years ago through a banker at Bank of America. No special terms were included in the deal. Isakson obtained his through a real estate associate at HomeBank. The mortgage was subsequently sold to Synovus and then Chase. It was paid June 1.

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