It's becoming a common crime that targets people who are working to achieve the American dream -- home mortgage fraud -- and recently it came close to wiping out an entire street in the Montopolis neighborhood.

Isaul Chavez's priority is providing a home for his family, but after years of making improvements and monthly mortgage payments Chavez came close to losing his home.

"You think you've got an opportunity on buying a house and it turns out they're just actually taking it from you," Chavez said.

Documents filed by the Texas Attorney General's Office allege Robert Flores re-sold homes without telling buyers about pre-existing liens. The lawsuit lists the company Flores operated as Galindo Trust. It's the same name of the street in Montopolis where Chavez and 11 homeowners lived.

Yvonne Lopez-Noack says Flores ripped off homeowners by "taking not only the mortgage payments but they were taking tax payment insurance payments and not making those payments so the each individual was in jeopardy of losing their homes ultimately to foreclosure."

But thanks to Lopez-Noack and her co-workers at University Federal Credit Union, Chavez and the other families have been able to stay in their homes. It's taken almost two years, but University Federal Credit Union helped clear the pre-existing liens and provided fixed rate mortgages to the homebuyers.

And for those efforts Chavez is thankful.

"If it wasn't for ya'll it would have been a lot worse. We could've got kicked out on the street. They could've foreclosed the house. I mean we could've lost all our stuff," Chavez said.

Experts say home purchase fraud is a growing crime that often targets hardworking people in low income neighborhoods. In this case, defendant Robert Flores of Cedar Park was slapped with a permanent injunction and ordered to pay $1.4 million in civil penalties.

But for Chavez and his neighbors, the best part is being able to live the American dream in their own homes.