Mortgage fraud grew in the second quarter of the year but was still down from where it was a year earlier, according to the Second Quarter 2011 Mortgage Fraud Index, released Monday by MortgageDaily.com.

The index, based on criminal and civil cases in which defendants allegedly attempted to deceive real estate lenders into making credit decisions based on fraudulent documentation or false appraisal values, increased to 1261 based on 194 cases during the quarter, up 27 percent from the previous period (150 cases), but down from 1699 for the same period a year earlier (266 cases).

Minnesota emerged as a problem area during the second three months of 2011, with $161 million more in cases than the previous quarter, increasing the total dollar amount of mortgage fraud cases in the state to more than $184.7 million.

Minnesota came in just ahead of Florida with $184 million in fraud cases.

The national total was just under $1.6 trillion, according to MortgageDaily.com.

However, the dollar figure was down $661 million from the second quarter of 2010, as California (down $300 million), Michigan (down $218 million) and Pennsylvania (down $198 million) all saw declines.