TUCSON MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN PHOENIX?

posted by Michael Chihak

Tucson mortgage lenders probably acted more conservatively than their counterparts in Phoenix during the boom times in the real estate industry, accounting for the difference between the two metro areas in the severity of the real estate crisis.

So says Judy Lowe, Arizona's real estate commissioner. In an interview with Arizona Week, Lowe said Phoenix is worse off than Tucson, with "distressed properties" accounting for 72 percent of the metro area's housing sales. She didn't have a figure for Tucson, but said it is "not quite as bad, not quite as negative."

The difference?

Many more houses were sold in the Phoenix area than in Tucson during the height of the boom, 2005 and 2006, Lowe said. Additionally, she said: "Maybe Tucson was more conservative than the Phoenix valley in how those homeowners qualified for their mortgages."

One issue nationally during the mortgage financing crisis was that of sub-prime mortgages, awarded to people whose qualifications had not been thoroughly checked or who were allowed to take out mortgage loans at higher interest rates despite having marginal financial means.