PORTLAND, Ore. -- Unitus Community Credit Union Mortgage Lending Manager Dawn McCarn reports that delinquencies there are very low at less than .10% and just four loans were even late in October.

"We're not experiencing a high amount of members seeking relief from subprime or resetting ARMs just yet, at lease in our area. But we'll try to do a work out loan for them and get them into a fixed rate if we possibly can. Then, we'll be sure to keep the loan in our portfolio," she added.

Unitus does its mortgage marketing and lending through a subsidiary (not a CUSO, but a dba) called Unitus Mortgage. "We decided to brand our mortgage operation rather than promote mortgage lending from inside the credit union itself. We did that a year ago and it's worked very well for us. Often, if you say 'credit union' then realtors don't understand. Rather than having to tell them all about credit unions as home lenders we just decided to brand the mortgage operation separately. So far, it's helped us to develop business with real estate agents," said McCarn. (See related story on ACUMA's booth at the NAR Convention & Expo, which is designed to counter real estate agents' unfamiliarity with credit unions.)