Like other California credit unions in 2012, most of Kinecta's mortgages, 79.2%, refinanced existing notes. Members used 20.1% of the loans to purchase real estate. However, that percentage was greater than the rest of California's other credit unions. Only 12.2% of mortgage loans originated by credit unions in the state went to purchase property while 87.7% refinanced existing notes or financed home improvements, according to the data.

Kinecta did not have any executives available to comment on the HMDA numbers as of press time.

Nationwide, 18.89% of credit union mortgage loans in 2012 were used to purchase property, with 11.64% of mortgages were taken out to improve properties that were already owned, and 69.46% to refinance existing housing finance notes.

Read more: Low-income, FHA, ethnicity and other data …

While Kinecta took the lead in mortgage growth, the credit union lagged behind others in California on the number of mortgages made to low- and moderate-income borrowers. According to the data, 10.8% of Kinecta's mortgage loans in 2012 went to those households compared to 21% of mortgage loans from credit unions statewide.

By contrast, 69.4% of Kinecta's mortgage borrowers had higher incomes while overall, 53.9% from California credit unions had higher incomes.

Nationwide, credit unions originated 674,150 mortgage loans in 2012, with 172,625 or 25.62% going to low and moderate-income borrowers, according to the HMDA data. Upper-income borrowers took out over 311,000 mortgage loans or 46.18% from credit unions in 2012.

Despite the apparent income gap, Kinecta still led the state in the percentage of loans it made backed with Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance. Overall, only 0.3% of mortgage loans originated by California credit unions were made with FHA mortgage insurance compared to 1.1% at Kinecta.

Nationwide, Kinecta and other California credit unions lagged credit unions in the origination of FHA-backed loans in 2012. Nearly 11,000 credit union mortgages across the country or roughly 1.63% were backed by FHA insurance.

Low- and moderate-income borrowers tend to favor FHA mortgage insurance because it carries lower down payment requirements and allows gifts to be included as part of the down payment, according to some lending experts.

However, when it came to race or ethnicity, Kinecta's 2012 loans looked very much like other California credit unions. The exception was Kinecta made slightly fewer loans to Hispanic borrowers and a few more to Asian borrowers than other credit unions statewide.

Kinecta did not offer any loans backed by the Veterans Administration in 2012 the data revealed. The VA only backed 0.1% of loans originated by California credit unions.

However, the $747 million CoastHills Credit Union in Lompoc, Calif., led that market by originating 37 loans, or 55.28%, followed by the $5.5 billion Alaska USA Federal Credit Union in Anchorage, Alaska, which originated 18 loans or 26.87% through its housing finance CUSO, Alaska USA Mortgage Co.

When it came deciding whether to sell or book the loans, Kinecta sold about 65% of the loans it originated in 2012 to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and booked about 35% of them. Overall, California credit unions sold only roughly 47% of their mortgage loans and kept more than 48% of them, HMDA figures showed.

Nationwide, credit unions sold roughly 30% of their mortgage loans to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, slightly more than 13% of them to private investors and kept more than 56% of them.