A new study by Santa Ana, Calif., real estate data services company CoreLogic found that the number of short sales has more than tripled since 2008, and that’s leading to an increase in fraud.

Short sales accounted for 6 percent of all home sales in Portland the first five months of the year and 13 percent of all homes listed for sale in the city as of early June, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service, or RMLS.

Oregon had the 17th-highest number of short sales among the states during the past two years, according to CoreLogic.

A short sale occurs when a home threatened by foreclosure is sold, with the lender’s permission, for less than the value of the mortgage. The lender agrees to eat money on its original loan, but avoids having an empty home on its hands. The homeowner avoids having a foreclosure soiling his or her credit record.

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