CURealty Services, the housing finance CUSO that seeks to makecredit union central to their members real estate purchasingexperiences, announced it has signed on two more credit unions.

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

CU Realty CEO Mike Corn said the improving housing market andgrowing name recognition have helped the CUSO grow itsbusiness.

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

MECU and CFE are among a growing number of credit unions takingadvantage of the better market conditions, CU Realty said in itsannouncement.

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

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

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