The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has been running a series on mortgage fraud in their area. The initial stories appeared October 23 with follow-ups on November 13. Further stories are expected.

So far, the following stories have been featured:

Bank-account boosts help secure mortgages, by David Wren, The Sun News - November 13, 2005

Two Laurel Woods subdivision home buyers received deposits into their bank accounts from mobile home dealer Randy Conner, thus making it appear to mortgage companies that the buyers had enough money for down payments and other loan fees, The Sun News has learned. . .

U.S. attorney: Mortgage fraud cases on rise; by David Wren, The Sun News - November 13, 2005

Kevin McDonald, an assistant U.S. attorney in Columbia, said the number of mortgage fraud cases he's seen has grown in recent years, due in part to the state's hot housing market, particularly in the Upstate and along the coast.

Last year, for example, McDonald successfully prosecuted 21 individuals in the Greenville area who took part in a fraud scheme in which appraisers, mortgage brokers, attorneys and loan officers falsified mortgage documents and inflated the value of the property they were selling. . . .

NO CASH, NO HOME; by David Wren, The Sun News - November 13, 2005

At least 106 families have lost their homes to foreclosure since 1999 in Laurel Woods, a 135-acre manufactured-housing neighborhood with 369 homesites in the Burgess community, an investigation by The Sun News shows.

That is the highest foreclosure rate - an average of more than one out of every four homes - for any Grand Strand neighborhood, according to Michelle Halstrom, a local real estate agent who tracks foreclosures. . . .

Company misrepresented facts, suits say, by David Wren, The Sun News - October 23, 2005

Beach Mortgage, the company that arranged financing for some of the foreclosed Laurel Woods homes, is facing a pending lawsuit in Horry County claiming that it provided inaccurate financial information, such as a nonexistent down payment, on a mortgage application.

It is the second lawsuit since 2000 in which home buyers say Beach Mortgage included misleading information on loan documents. . . .

A couple's disappointing run at the American dream; by David Wren, The Sun News - October 23, 2005

It has taken Sylvia Orlando more than three years to start to rebound from the foreclosure of her home at 8373 Cherrywood Drive, and the recovery is far from complete.

Orlando is trying to put a 2001 bankruptcy filing behind her and has been renting a home for the past year with help from the Myrtle Beach Housing Authority. She hopes to qualify for a mortgage in the coming months through a federal program that helps the disabled get home loans.

"Now that I've gotten my credit cleaned up, I'm hoping things start working out better," she said. . . .

One home, two families, same problems; by David Wren, The Sun News - October 23, 2005

The home at 8546 Woodfield Drive has been sold twice in the past four years, and in both cases seller Clayton Mobile Homes has released the owners from their purchase contract because of complaints that the Laurel Woods home is uninhabitable because of mold and water damage.

"We thought we had found our dream home," said Traci Dellinger who, with her husband, Allen Dellinger, bought the double-wide mobile home in September 2001.

"But it was just one problem after another," she said. "In the end, it wasn't worth sacrificing our health to live there." . . .

A SAMPLING OF HOMES IN LAUREL WOODS; by David Wren, The Sun News - October 23, 2005

The owner | Daimon Gamble

The home | Gamble financed a 2001 mobile home at 8177 Woodland Drive in April 2001 with a $103,500 mortgage from First American Mortgage Securities Inc.

What happened | The 30-year mortgage had a 12.99 percent annual interest rate and payments of $1,144.11 per month. Gamble made four payments before defaulting, and a foreclosure suit was filed in March 2003. His home was sold at auction for $500. . .