At the close of 2011's second quarter, a handful of creditunions located in the sand states, where a teetering economy hasmade it most difficult for financial institutions to thrive, sharedhopeful bits of news: net worth ratio improvements, net incomeincreases, loan loss reductions and operating expense cutbacks.

But there's still a long road to recovery ahead for CUs in thesand states of California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, say severalcredit union CEOs based in those regions. And another state, Utah,has become the newest member of the sand state club. In February2010, Utah League of Credit Unions President/CEO Scott Simpson declared Utah a sand state, stating it had caughtup with the bankruptcies and foreclosures the original four stateshad suffered.

Callahan & Associates' current state-by-state return onassets data shows several of the sand states lagging behind therest of the nation. Of all 50 states plus Puerto Rico, Guam, theU.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, Nevada ranks rockbottom with a return on assets of negative 0.33%. Florida ranks38th with 0.59%, Utah comes in at 35th with 0.60%, California ranks19th with 0.79%, and Arizona is 14th on the list with 0.85%.