Bank Honors Loan Rescuer

With yields on certificates of deposit and similar investments near historic lows, the senior citizens living in Oak Forest Mobile Estates, a scenic community in the hills of Westlake Village, were feeling economically strapped.

One possible source of relief--reduced mortgage payments on the spaces they’d purchased in 1991--seemed out of reach because of the cost of refinancing. By early last year, mortgage rates were down about one interest rate point since the lots were purchased.

Then Margaret Minter, manager of First Interstate Bank’s branch in Thousand Oaks, came to the rescue. She estimates that her branch financed 80% of Oak Forest’s 150 lots when the park’s management sold them to the residents. About 90% of the residents are in their 60s or older, she added.

Bypassing escrow and many so-called garbage charges, Minter arranged a one-time adjustment in the payments. “We didn’t waive all charges, but the net result was a lowering of everybody’s payments by $50 to $150 a month,” she said.

“I realize that doesn’t sound like much, but it meant a lot to the homeowners and to us at the bank. We’ve worked with them so closely that we feel as if we’re family.”

For her success with the program, Minter, 36, was one of a dozen of First Interstate’s 9,000 employees who last month received the bank’s Chairman’s Community Reinvestment Award.

In fact, she’s trying to help other mobile-home owners with their financing. She recently conducted a financing seminar at Vallecito Mobile Estates in Newbury Park and has helped buyers there apply for low down-payment loans through the state’s mobile-home assistance program.