The Press Register reports from Alabama. "Darlene Hill was making a living in Mobile as a real estate investor when she devised a sophisticated con job against lenders that would net her far more money than just robbing a teller with a gun. By the time her enterprise collapsed last year, according to FBI investigators, she had bilked banking institutions and mortgage companies out of $9 million."

"And if not for the money that the companies recovered from foreclosures, the total loss would have been a good deal higher, investigators say."

"Experts contend that the damage extends far beyond lenders. Consumers get hurt, they say, when fraud artificially pushes up housing prices that eventually come crashing down. In extreme cases, entire neighborhoods have been flooded with foreclosure sales."

"'It's never good to have a lot of homes for sale, for any reason,' said Patty Bergstrom, a spokeswoman for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Atlanta, which is recognized as a hot spot for mortgage fraud. 'It affects a lot of people.'"

"To make things work, Hill needed help. She recruited a mortgage broker named Antonio Harrison of Mobile, who has admitted to submitting fraudulent loan applications. Another participant in Hill's scheme, Jocelyn Easter of Mobile, worked as a loan closer for Harris Title and later for Hill."

"John Mechem of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said con artists often employ unscrupulous appraisers to assign bogus values to properties in order to get more money from loans. When the mortgage company eventually goes to foreclose on the property, he said, it finds that the true value is much less than the loan amount."

The Madison County Journal from Mississippi. "Foreclosures in Madison County have increased 154 percent over the past year, public records show, one indicator of the glut in the housing market, in part because of overbuilding, analysts say."

"What's more, defaults on loans and mortgages have increased 177 percent, records show. In every month of this year, the number of foreclosures increased over the same month in 2006, the statistics show."

"Vickie Graves, a mortgage loan originator in Madison and 24-year veteran of the industry, said...she blamed a general glut in the market that can only be solved by the laws of supply and demand."

"'When there's too much out there, then the market makes that correction,' she said."

"Graves said some consumers have over-extended themselves. 'They're anxious to get into that $500,000 home, instead of that $250,000 home they need to be in,' said Graves. 'Builders, realtors, mortgage people, no one should accept all credit or blame in this case.'"

"Anyone who takes a trip through some of south Madison County's high end neighborhoods, she said, will be able to confirm the sluggish pace of higher-end home sales. According to the Jackson Realtors Association, the average list price of a home in Madison and Ridgeland is about $358,000. The median price for a home in the South was $181,000 in April, a Realtors report shows."

"There were 953 homes listed in the Madison-Ridgeland area, more than any other real estate market in metropolitan Jackson, according to the Realtors association."

"David Breland, a builder in Madison, said that doctors, lawyers and others with no building experience have gotten into the business. 'They don't know the ins and outs, and they don't know how to make a house,' said Breland. 'They don't know until the smoke clears that they've lost money on the thing.'"

"Even experienced builders are seeing difficulties. Breland noted that he has had one home on the market for over two years. If builders cannot sell a house within six months, he said, the builder begins losing money on the property."

"Graves blamed the bad sub-prime mortgage market for some of the problems. These sub-prime mortgage arrangements, she said, were not always in the best interests of homebuyers. 'Sub-prime lenders are tightening up on what they offer. There are less unique products than six months ago,' said Graves. 'Wall Street has tightened up on that.'"

"Madison County Tax Assessor Gerald Barber, a member of the Mississippi Appraisal Board, said that he thinks criminal activity has been a large part of the problem of rising foreclosures."

"'Mortgage fraud is huge, billions of dollars are involved,' said Barber. 'A lot of foreclosures, in my opinion, are coming from mortgage-fraud related situations.'"

The Dallas Morning News from Texas. "When it comes to foreclosure woes in North Texas, there's plenty to spread around. While big cities Dallas and Fort Worth have the most home foreclosures, some suburbs, including Arlington, Garland, Grand Prairie and Mesquite, are also seeing large numbers of home loan defaults."

"In the northern suburbs, Frisco is playing catch up with a 57 percent jump in residential foreclosure postings in the first half of 2007."

"'Among the suburban cities in the North Texas region, the city with the highest number of residential postings filed during the first half of 2007 was the city of Arlington with 1,488 foreclosure notices,' George Roddy, CEO of Foreclosure Listing Service, said in the new report. Garland is second with 967 postings."

"'I think it has a lot to do with demographics in those cities,' Mr. Roddy said, citing the large number of affordable homes, which appealed to first-time homebuyers."

"Frisco, with 267 postings, had the third-highest gain among North Texas suburbs. In fashionable Frisco, buyers who now face foreclosure may have overreached, Mr. Roddy said. 'It's the place to be and where you see big houses,' he said."

"Through the first half of 2007, more than 21,000 residential foreclosure postings have been recorded in North Texas. That's about a 14 percent increase from the same period of 2006, according to Foreclosure Listing Service."