Mississippi bank to move into Baldwin County

BancorpSouth Inc. plans to open an office in Gulf Shores in early January, marking the Mississippi bank's entry into the south Alabama market and an opportunity to capitalize on a hot construction market.

The office at 229 E. 20th Ave. will initially be a loan facility, meaning there won't be tellers or automated teller machines. After it establishes a commercial customer base, BancorpSouth plans to expand the office into a full-fledged bank branch, according to the company.

The Tupelo, Miss.-based banking company has 20 branches in Alabama, including eight in metropolitan Birmingham. The Gulf Shores loan office will focus on construction and commercial real estate lending, according to Vice President Philip Webb, who was recently hired from Compass Bank to direct Baldwin County operations.

The company does not have any branches in Mobile County, but "that is another area that we would love to expand into," said BancorpSouth's Mandy Mitchell, vice president of marketing for the Alabama region.

"We have been looking at the Gulf Coast region for some time as an area that we knew we wanted to expand in," Mitchell said. "Quite frankly, we just found the perfect person to run it down there -- to hire -- that really knows that market."

Webb was a senior lender for Compass Bank in Baldwin County for five years and Compass' city president in Pensacola for several years, Mitchell said.

"The demand is good, and market conditions are good," Webb said.

BancorpSouth's (NYSE:BXS) 271 branches span from eastern Texas to Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Its shares fell 40 cents Monday, closing at $22.82 and giving the company a market value of $1.79 billion.

Currently, 12 bank organizations serve Baldwin County, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. June report. Regions Bank has the greatest share of the federally insured bank deposits, with almost 24 percent, followed by Wachovia, 14 percent; First Gulf Bank, 12 percent; and Vision Bank, almost 11 percent.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.