Lending

Not long ago, Colorado was one of the hottest housing markets in the country, ranking along with southern California and Las Vegas, but in the past two years, it's been stymied by oversupply and rising interest rates. Now, it leads the nation in foreclosures, with one in every 168 households. That's 700% percent higher than the national average.

Credit unions continue to lean on real estate lending to try to bolster sagging loan growth, according to the most recent Credit Union Trends Report by CUNA Mutual Group.

WesCorp's Ron Araujo sees a mixed bag for credit unions in the mortgage market.

More than 50 credit unions were part of a Fannie Mae study on mortgages that revealed not only the face of the top credit union mortgage originators but also some lessons to be learned from the 2005 mortgage market.

The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions and the CDCU Institute and the CDCU Mortgage Center is presenting an affordable mortgage lending seminar on December 11-12 in Chicago at the Fannie Mae Office.

FNC has unveiled a new collateral-focused analytics that it says arms mortgage lenders with decision-making tools for the life of a loan, from origination to review to capital markets.

NuUnion CU, formerly State Employees CU, said it is offering $1 million in below-rate education loans as part of the Michigan CU League's Career Transition Program for auto workers.

A repeat loan promotion by Michigan State University Federal Credit Union that gave one local disabled teenager a room makeover also generated 640 new home equity and mortgage accounts during its two-month run.

Providing an alternative to payday lenders is only the first step in keeping members from doing business with the predatory industry, so one credit union is taking a carrot-and-stick approach.

If credit unions were hoping that outreach to Hispanics will lift them from the doldrums of flat membership growth and expanding Hispanic homeownership will boost bottom line profitability they'd be wise to do more than talk about it.

The time is now for credit unions to gear up for the last wave of Baby Boomers who will soon reach (gasp) age 60 and may be house-rich and cash poor. Especially the ones strapped by financing their kids' college education, their parents' elder care and their own retirement.

Freddie Mac's Deputy Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts told ACUMA attendees that economists crying doom over prospects in the mortgage industry will certainly be wrong. "The question is, how wrong?"

Richard Sands knows realtors. As the executive director of the Coldwell banker Real Estate Academy, Sands teaches realtors how to be realtors. He was a high school teacher, too, so he knows how to drill it down for maximum capacity in minimum time.

Diamond Credit Union has created a new loan product called Fresh Start Loan to help members establish credit or improve poor credit ratings.

Credit unions must keep their eyes on the prize that is real estate lending if they are ever to penetrate beyond the 2% share of the market they have owned for years, according to one expert.

The demand for student loans is growing as college costs soar and federal assistance fails to keep up, creating a window of opportunity for credit unions to spur loan growth and reach out to the youth market, according to a trio of student loan experts.

Although interest rates appear to be stabilizing, two WesCorp representatives say credit unions have many issues to consider when pricing loans and deposits, and that there remain a number of strategies for improving net income.

Credit unions must get more involved with real estate agents if they wish to break past the 2% wall of mortgage penetration, and the American Credit Union Mortgage Association is trying to make that happen.