Prospective buyers are welcomed by real estate agents at an open house in West Hempstead, New York on April 18, 2021. It's been a tough market for U.S. homebuyers with a limited supply of properties driving up prices nationwide. But another factor may have contributed to rising home costs in certain markets — fraudulent claims from the Covid-era Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, according to new research. "Fraud on this scale is enormously costly," said Sam Kruger, co-author and assistant professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin. And previous research from the University of Texas at Austin team flagged $117.3 billion of the funds as "suspicious lending."

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Persons: It's, Sam Kruger, Kruger Organizations: U.S, University of Texas, Finance, Austin Locations: West Hempstead , New York, Austin