Recognizing opportunity in Phoenix’s housing market, Carrington Mortgage Services has opened a new Scottsdale office, its second in the area. This is part of the company’s national strategy to target a specific underserved segment — those with a FICO credit score of less than 630.
Arizona was among the areas hardest hit by the recent housing collapse, a distinction it shared with California, Florida and Nevada. Now, says Ray Brousseau, executive vice president of Carrington’s mortgage lending division, “People have battled their way back, are on good footing, and need the opportunity to own their own home.”
Carrington, Brousseau explains, is a specialty-service asset management company. “We have experience managing risk and credit.” Noting that a low credit score is an indication something was wrong, he says Carrington’s underwriters look first to understand what happened and why, then look at the current state of an applicant’s finances and expectations for the future. “We do manual underwriting, and consider compensating factors.”
Brousseau relates a report from Tyson Rondeau, branch manager of the new Scottsdale office, that “the market has increased 23 percent in the last two years, with strong gains in home values. Prices in many Phoenix neighborhoods are back to 2003 levels.” And he shares that Clinton Alcorn, regional vice president, pointing to Metro Phoenix’s continued growth in population and employment opportunities as well as a resurgence in homebuilding, describes the Phoenix market as representing “one of the best opportunities in the country for carrying out the strategy of serving the underserved.”
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