NCUA Still in Housing Business

The NCUA will remain the owner of houses in Florida, at least for the time being.NCUA Director of Public and Congressional Affairs John McKechnie said the agency hopes to hold on to the 1,091 houses it acquired during its conservatorship of Norlarco, Huron River Area and New Horizons CUs until the market improves.He declined to give additional information and said doing so could place the agency in subsequent negotiations with potential buyers.NCUA owns houses near Ft. Myer, which has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to RealtyTrac. The agency is responsible for taxes and upkeep of the properties and also pays to have security personnel patrol the area.The houses were financed by loans from those three now-defunct credit unions.The agency’s bad assets are administered by its Asset Management Assistance Center in Austin, Texas.Last year, the agency estimated that the book value of the homes was $218 million.Rivals of credit unions, represented by the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America, have used those failures to back up their case for why credit unions shouldn’t be allowed to make more business loans.–[email protected]

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