Retrospectives on the contributions of Jim Melvin have been published elsewhere by Scott Yost and Allen Johnson. The Triad Business Journal and the News and Record also report.
He was probably the closest thing we have had in Greensboro to an oligarch. I expect his time as mayor in Greensboro was likely a much better time overall than that which followed afterward.
Greensboro’s political culture bears his signature, for better or worse. Even those who opposed what he represented must acknowledge that he was consequential.
I moved to Greensboro in 1983 and financed my home with a 30 year mortgage from First Home Savings and Loan. House pay was 9 1/2 % .
It was usurious.
Usury is, by modern definition, the illegal practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest. Usury is usually carried out with the intention of the lender, or usurer, gaining an unfair profit from the loan. A modern slang term for a usurer is loan shark
Ezekiel 18:13 ESV
“Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.”
All the monthly went to pay interest … nothing toward equity. BTW I eventually ditched that mortgage and refinanced with BOA for 15 years–6% .
I heard the name Jim Melvin when I purchased my home in connection with that S&L.
I read about Jim Melvin passing in the N&R.
Funny thing that the article failed to mention a story from their own pages circa 1993.
Here ya go:
” There’s no way to put a happy face on the demise of Greensboro’s 1st Home Federal Savings and Loan. The marque will be missed in this city where it was born and has done business for nearly 80 years.
Granted, it was no shock to be told that 1st Home would be broken up and sold. The news had been coming for two years; the suspense had gotten heavy. And it’s been reasonably clear for some time now that the best possible outcome, an acquisition that would bring a major bank headquarters to Greensboro, was not in the cards. And it is good news indeed that one of North Carolina’s solid, mid-sized banks, Central Carolina Bank, will take over and operate 1st Home’s 10 Greensboro offices. That should offer ample reassurance to 1st Home’s customers, who have $475 million on deposit here. It is a great relief to know that all but 20 of 1st Home’s 375 local employees are assured of jobs.
It is not good news that the 100 Triad residents who are 1st Home’s stockholders stand to recoup little if any of their investment. They may find some small comfort in the knowledge that capitalism has always had its winners and losers.
Not the least of the losers is 1st Home Chairman Jim Melvin, who has led the thrift for 14 years and has devoted the last two to a full-court press aimed at salvaging whatever he could for the company’s depositors, employees and investors. He saw a large chunk of his own assets evaporate with all the rest. His stands in marked contrast to the behavior of so many S&L executives who rode the crest of the go-go years, then bailed out before the crash.
It’s worth repeating that 1st Home Federal was never among the black sheep S&Ls, which saw federal deregulation as a signal to embark on an orgy of reckless mismanagement. Yes, 1st Home found itself holding a lot of worthless loans when the commercial real estate bubble of the mid-’80s burst, but the company was soundly managed throughout. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that the root of the S&L debacle was in the skyrocketing interest rates of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Savings and loans, with their traditional reliance on long-term home mortgages, were caught in a bind between low-yielding assets and a market that demanded sky-high interest for deposits. Deregulation was thought to be the cure, but that, together with distorted tax laws, drove a charge into ill-conceived commercial real estate development.
In the end, it was a change in federal regulation, designed to counter the excesses of the ’80s, that pushed 1st Home over the brink. Even after that, the company remained profitable.
Melvin and his management team earn the community’s gratitude for making the best of an unfortunate turn of events. Let’s hope Greensboro provides a fresh challenge for their talents. ”
RIP Jim Melvin
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Thanks for sharing that story, Fred. Pretty fascinating. I had no idea about that S&L and the fact that CCB bought all those offices.
Melvin obviously had some good sides. His legacy is a bit complicated.