On a month-to-month basis, the total loan balance growth of 0.6% matched NCUA data for the average October-to-November gain from 2015 through 2019.

Total car loans were up just 0.3% from October, matching October's bare gain, which was the worst month-to-month performance since December 2020, when balances fell 0.4%.

New car balances fell 0.2% to $142.4 billion (compared with the five-year average gain of 0.3%), while used cars were up 0.6% to $264.5 billion (twice the five-year average of 0.3%). First mortgages rose 1.8% to $577.3 billion — three times the 0.6% five-year average.

On a year-ago basis, loan growth has been accelerating since May, when total loans were 4.4% greater than in May 2020.

First mortgage balances have been showing surprising strength given waning refinances, perhaps reflecting credit unions choosing to sell fewer to the secondary market. Gains have steadily increased from 8.1% in July to 11% in November.

New car loans fell 2% and used car loans grew 9.4% from a year earlier.

Growth in credit card balances has been increasing since June, but November's 4.1% gain is still below average for the entire portfolio and November's $64.3 billion balance is still 1.5% lower than in February 2020, the month before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

Unsecured consumer term loans (excluding credit cards) fell 2% to $52.7 billion from a year earlier, and fell 2.1%.from the previous month. The NCUA required Paycheck Protection Program loans to be classified in this category. Those loans swelled in 2020, and, as designed, have been falling off this year.

The pandemic surge in savings continued to subside. In March 2021, savings were 20.3% higher than in March 2020, when the pandemic began. As of Nov. 30, savings were $1.8 trillion, 13.5% higher than a year earlier and up 0.1% from the previous month.

As a result, the loan-to-savings ratio rose to 70.7% in November, up from 70.4% in October, but still lower than the 75.2% ratio in November 2020.

The report showed there were 5,140 credit unions as of Nov. 30, 181 fewer than a year earlier and 23 fewer than the previous month. They had 131.5 million members on Nov. 30, up five million or 4% from a year earlier, and up 0.2% from the previous month. The report also showed:

• Assets were $2.08 trillion, up 12.9% from a year earlier, and rose 0.1% from the previous month.
• The 60-day-plus delinquency rate was 0.49% as of Nov. 30, compared with 0.58% a year earlier and 0.48%, a month earlier.
• Loans per member were $9,670, up 2.7% from a year earlier, and rose 0.5% from the previous month.
• Savings per member were $13,673, up 9.2% from a year earlier, and down $4 from the previous month.
• Second-lien mortgages fell 3.5% to $83.9 billion from a year earlier, and fell 2.3%.from the previous month.