The 1.8 million-member, $27 billion State Employees' Credit Union now has more than $1 billion in first-time home buyer loans on its books, the credit union has announced.

This means the Raleigh, N.C., credit union has helped 8,300 members into their first homes, most often with 30-year adjustable rate mortgages that required no money down and carried no private mortgage insurance, SECU said.

The program is 25 years old this year and, even though it requires no money down, has still performed extremely well for SECU, posting a default rate of only 0.29% and a 60-day delinquency rate of just over 2.0%. The average two-month delinquency rate on the credit union's other housing finance products is above 2.0%, according to Spencer Scarboro, SECU's senior vice president of loan origination.

“We are very pleased the First Time Homebuyer's Mortgage Loan program has proven to be of great benefit to our members' mortgage financing needs for more than two decades, Scarboro said. “Our goal as a financial cooperative is to offer safe and affordable loan options to best serve the overall needs of our membership.”