Mohave Daily News: Local

The Daily News

BULLHEAD CITY - Although Phoenix and Bullhead City are both located in Arizona, things are different in regards to the number of people losing their homes to foreclosure or falling behind on their mortgages.

The Phoenix area is nearing a two-year high, figures show. “So far I have not heard of any such thing here,” said Nola Charles, president of the Bullhead City/Mohave Valley Association of Realtors.

“I went through that kind of market in San Diego County,” she said, “when people had really paid too much and the bottom dropped out of the market and they just wanted to get out with their credit intact, that kind of thing.”

“There was a number (of foreclosures) two years ago,” said Tom Phipps, home mortgage consultant for the Bullhead City Wells Fargo office, “and a lot of times that was a relationship of the amount of money they owed versus the sale price of the house.

“Well, the house has appreciated so much here in the last two years that people that do get into financial difficulties can still get their houses sold,” he said.

Economists say that nearly 40 percent of all home loans in metro Phoenix are adjustable-rate mortgages or ARMs. Nationally about 30 percent of home loans are ARMs.

As mortgage payments rise, many homeowners fall deeper into debt.

Not many of Charles' clients have purchased their homes with ARMs. “Most of the sales that I have ... are cash,” she said, with many Californians selling their Golden State homes and buying cheaper house in the Tri-state.

Phipps agreed that ARMs are not as popular here. “Well, we've got a little different market here with the kind of manufactured homes we have.

“A lot of the communities don't have manufactured homes,” he said. “There's different financing available on manufactured homes than there is on regular site-built homes ... “

The Associated Press contributed to this report.