Cars Chug, Houses Rise, Credit Union Members Save

Credit union portfolios expanded in September above last year’s rate, while member savings rates continued to swell, according to CUNA’s monthly estimate released Thursday.

The Madison, Wis., trade group’s Monthly Credit Union Estimates showed the average loan for each of that nation’s 125.6 members was $9,443 as of Sept. 30, a 3.5% gain from a year earlier. That compared with a prior increase of 2.5% from September 2018 to September 2019.

Savings per member grew 14.9% to $12,389 as of Sept. 30, up from a 3.2% gain from 2018 to 2019.

Total loans rose 6.6% to $1.19 trillion as of Sept. 30, up from a prior gain of 6.2%. Real estate loans rose 9.4% to $601.4 billion, while car loans rose 1.6% to $385.5 billion.

Past months’ patterns continued with loans rising especially fast for fixed-rate first mortgages and used cars, while balances shrank for new cars, second mortgages and home equity lines of credit.

During the pandemic, credit cards have been down, while unsecured personal loans have been up. Those numbers are not broken out in this report, but can be seen after the Fed releases its G-19 Consumer Credit Report Friday.

That report will include a quarterly report on automotive and student loans from all lenders.

CUNA’s report found the nation’s 5,338 credit unions had $1.82 trillion in assets as of Sept. 30, up 16.3%. Membership grew 3% to 125.6 million. It also showed:

• New auto loans fell 3.8% to $143.5 billion.
• Used auto loans rose 5% to $242 billion.
• Fixed-rate first mortgages rose 16.8% to $391.4 billion.
• Adjustable-rate first mortgages rose 0.8% to $123.4 billion.
• Second mortgages fell 10.6% to $30.8 billion.
• Home equity lines of credit fell 3.7% to $55.7 billion.
• Savings grew 18.3% to $1.56 trillion.
• Capital grew 8.3% to $191.1 billion.