2 CUs Crushed by Speculative Housing Deals

The National Credit Union Administration is still tallying hundreds of millions of dollars in losses accrued by two credit unions -- one in Michigan, one in Colorado -- that it took over earlier this year.The loan losses came after thousands of homebuyers walked away from failed real estate developments near Florida's Gulf Coast, thousands of miles from their home offices. According to a report in The Credit Union Journal, the NCUA is now trying to sell the two credit unions: Huron River Area FCU of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Norlarco CU of Fort Collins, Colo., both of which are buried by real estate construction loans in Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. Norlarco, Colorado's eighth-largest credit union (with almost $400 million in assets), has seen its real estate chargeoffs rise tenfold this year to almost $60 million, with similar mortgage losses accruing at Huron River. The two credit unions were among a handful of lenders that provided mortgages to speculative investors far afield -- in Philadelphia, Miami, and Georgia. The speculators wound up defaulting on the loans when the value of the property plummeted over the past two years, according to several lawsuits filed in the case.