Credit unions had more loans on their books for businesses than for new cars in September.
Credit unions' balance of car loans has been slipping for the past few years while its book of commercial loans has been expanding faster than most other loan types.
The result has been that commercial loans make up an ever larger portion of the credit union portfolio.
Part of that might be intentional. A Jan. 12 report from Cox Automotive said credit unions expanded their credit in December, but at a slower rate than captives, finance companies and banks.
Meanwhile, a Jan. 13 report from the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed that credit unions' commercial loan balances continue to rise at more than double the rate of the rest of the nation.
The growth in the portfolio is being fed by large gains in originations.
The fastest gains for credit unions (and other lenders) have been for loans backed by apartments and other multifamily properties.
Credit unions produced $9 billion in multifamily loans in the 12 months ending September 2025, up 50% from the previous 12 months. Other types of commercial real estate grew 34% to $30.9 billion, and commercial loans not backed by real estate grew 18% to $7.1 billion.
Multifamily loans were also the hot ticket nationally – but only by balance growth.
The Jan. 9 MBA report showed the nation's multifamily real estate balance stood at $2.24 trillion on Sept. 30, up 5.9% from a year earlier while other commercial loans grew just 2.5%.
However, the story is different when measuring originations. An MBA forecast released last October showed multifamily originations growing at half the rate of other types of commercial real estate in 2025 and 2026.
It forecast production in 2025 would rise 24% for multifamily and 47% for other commercial real estate. In 2026, it forecast gains of 16% for multifamily and 33% for other.
Along with the thrill of growth, there is a bit of anxiety with deteriorating loan quality.
Callahan's Peer Suite shows net charge-off rates for commercial loans were 0.17% in the third quarter, up from 0.12% a year earlier and 0.04% two years earlier.
The delinquency rate for commercial loans was 0.41% in September 2022 and 0.44% in September 2023, running well below delinquency rates for the entire portfolio.
But the delinquency rate jumped to 0.89% by September 2024, nearly matching the overall delinquency rate, which had also risen.
By September 2025, the commercial delinquency rate was 1.08%, compared with 0.95% for all loans.
The delinquency rate is higher for commercial loans not backed by real estate. They have tracked credit card delinquency rates for the past year – excluding the seasonal relief for consumer loans in tax refund season.
Commercial real estate delinquencies are lower and have tracked with the overall delinquency rate for the past year.
Delinquencies have also risen for commercial real estate, but not as much as for commercial loans not backed by real estate.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.