CU Failures Cause REO Expansion at Regulator

The growing number of credit union failures has forced NCUA's Asset Management and Assistance Center, which had been managing as many as 1,000 residential properties in south Florida, to expand into California and Las Vegas in recent months. The National Credit Union Administration still owns 633 houses in southwest Florida, as a result of previous CU failures. Of these, 220 are leased out, according to NCUA spokesman John McKechnie, who noted the agency originally had about 1,000 houses in the area. "Our plan is to sell 150 houses this year, so sales this year are slightly above plan," he said. "All sales of our residential properties are through local real estate brokers," he said. "We have a professional onsite property manager in southwest Florida, which is the only area where it has made economic sense to do so." NCUA is also considering selling some of the loans in packages but has no current plans to do so, and the agency is not holding any other significant assets from failed credit unions other than loans, he noted.