CU Realty Services, the housing finance CUSO that seeks to make credit union central to their members real estate purchasing experiences, announced it has signed on two more credit unions.

The 124,000-member, $1.4 billion CFE Federal Credit Union in Lake Mary, Florida and the 38,000-member, $909 million MECU in Schaumburg, Ill., joined the organization that specializes in tying participating credit unions into networks of Realtors.

CU Realty CEO Mike Corn said the improving housing market and growing name recognition have helped the CUSO grow its business.

“This is a good time for us, with four new client credit unions just in the first quarter of 2013,” he said. “Experts are expecting an increase in purchase mortgages this year, which is expected to help the U.S. economic recovery.”

MECU and CFE are among a growing number of credit unions taking advantage of the better market conditions, CU Realty said in its announcement.

“After analyzing the situation, we realized we were missing the boat on purchase mortgages by not being a full-service provider,” said Josh Ward, manager of real estate Lending at MECU. “We saw that we could provide more services and thus more value to our members.”

MECU selected CU Realty Services after seeking feedback from other CU Realty clients. “We liked what we heard,” said Ward. “The program seemed like a good fit for us.”

CFE also wanted to grow its first mortgages, and CU Realty Service's brand image was the draw, according to Miriam Mitchell, that credit union's director of real estate lending.