Florida has maintained its dubious distinction as the nation’s most fraud-ridden mortgage market, but the rate of fraud is falling, the LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute says today. The group’s annual mortgage fraud study gives Florida an index of 292 for 2009, meaning Florida has 2.9 times as much loan chicanery as the rest of the nation. Florida also was No. 1 in 2008, the study says, but with an index of 430, according to the report. Florida now has ranked No. 1 in mortgage fraud for four years in a row. (Note: The LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute originally ranked Rhode Island No. 1 in last year’s report and Florida No. 2, but it has revised those figures to rank Florida No. 1 for 2008.)