The $3.5 billion Lake Michigan Credit Union is working on opening a mortgage lending office near Naples, Fla., according to one of the cooperative's mortgage executives.

Eric Burgoon, SVP for mortgage lending at Lake Michigan in Grand Rapids, Mich., said a significant number of members had moved to Florida either full or part time. They started asking if the credit union had mortgage originators who could help them finance a Florida purchase.

“Some of them certainly could be snow birds,” Burgoon said. “But others also might be people who moved to Florida to pursue economic opportunity.”

Lake Michigan had already gained some experience in mortgage lending outside its home state when it opened a mortgage office in the greater Detroit area last year, according to Burgoon. The Florida office will be an extension of the same type of effort, he added.

Burgoon said Lake Michigan was also prompted to make the move by the low numbers of other credit unions making mortgage loans in the southwestern region of the Sunshine State.

“We ran market reports and saw that the ten top mortgage lenders in that part of Florida are all banks,” he said.

One credit union in the top 20 mortgage lenders in the area in question had almost exclusively refinanced existing loans whereas Lake Michigan's expertise lied more in purchase money lending, he noted.

Lake Michigan was of the top three credit unions in the country for originating loans to lower and moderate income borrowers in 2013, according to HMDA data

The 243,000-member, Grand Rapids, Mich.-based, credit union serves the state's entire lower peninsula as well as people who support the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association of Michigan.

Instant Insights /

Lake Michigan Takes Mortgages to Florida

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