by Tanta on 4/21/2008 06:50:00 PM

I have been trying to ignore this story in the LA Times all day, but people will keep sending it to me. I excerpt the relevant parts:

Some folks . . . some people . . . what appears to be . . . a jump in . . . believed to have been . . . The numbers are small, but . . . a dramatic increase . . . surprising some officials . . . making nationwide figures elusive. Still . . . a significant increase . . . questionable home fires, with foreclosure as a possible factor . . . potential fraud . . . would not provide further details . . . has not identified a rise in . . . does not support that . . . But some observers say . . . That's the question.

Yes, people have been known to engage in insurance fraud before. Yes, some of these people are probably emotionally disturbed--like a lot of amateur arsonists--in ways that both predate their mortgage loans and may well have little to do with those loans. No, I don't think this is one more thing for lenders to be afraid of--the lender being the loss payee on the hazard insurance policy, actually, that's the first place I'd look. I have no evidence that lenders are out torching homes instead of foreclosing on them, but then again I bet I could get an unnamed source to opine that it's possibly a dangerous trend . . .