Foreclosure filings declined 3% in June but were still 51% higher than the level recorded a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

The company’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report indicates that foreclosure of 252,363 filings that consist of default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions, were reported in June.

“June was the second straight month with more than a quarter million properties nationwide receiving foreclosure filings,” said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer.

“Foreclosure activity slipped 3% lower from the previous month, but the year over year increase of more than 50% indicates we have not yet reached the top of this foreclosure cycle”.

Bank repossessions continued to increase much faster than default notices or auction notices in June, he said.

The company reported that Nevada, California, and Arizona again recorded the highest foreclosure rates in June.

Massachusetts has some new tools to fight the foreclosure crisis. Twenty million, to be exact.

The state has just activated a 20 million dollar loan fund for community groups to buy foreclosed homes before they become neighborhood wrecking eyesores and worse.

Foreclosures are devastating both for individual homeowners and their families and also to communities.

The 20 million dollar fund will provide loans of 250 thousand to a million dollars to community groups.
That’s expected to buy 250 to 500 foreclosed homes and apartments, with the Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Lawrence, New Bedford, Springfield, and Worcester areas.

Notably, it doesn’t use any state money. 17 million comes from private lenders in the Massachusetts housing investment corporation, 2 million from the Boston foundation, and 1 million from the Hyams foundation in Chelsea.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE) CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading global commercial finance company, announced today that it has agreed to sell its Home Lending business, consisting of $9.3 billion in assets and related servicing operations, to Lone Star Funds for $1.5 billion in cash and the assumption of $4.4 billion of outstanding debt and other related liabilities. The servicing centers, which employ approximately 300 people, are located in Marlton, NJ and Oklahoma City, OK.

In a separate transaction, CIT agreed to sell its approximately $470 million manufactured housing portfolio to Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc. for approximately $300 million. Net cash proceeds from the two transactions are expected to be approximately $1.8 billion.

In the second quarter of 2008, CIT expects to record an estimated pretax loss for the Home Lending segment of approximately $2.5 billion ($2.0 billion after tax). This loss consists of an estimated $2.2 billion loss on sale and an approximate $350 million loss from operations during the period. Home Lending will be accounted for as a discontinued operation. The sale of the portfolios is scheduled to be completed in July, while the transfer of the servicing platform will be completed by the first quarter 2009. It is expected that the company’s proforma tangible equity to managed assets ratio at June 30, 2008 will be in excess of 9%, above the company’s current 8.5% target.

Shakeups at Washington Mutual and Wachovia. Roundtable Discussion with Andrew Seibert of Nextier Wealth Management and Forbes CEO Steve Forbes.

Washington Mutual shares are down after Kerry Killinger stepped down as chairman. Shares of Wachovia are falling below it’s lowest value in almost 13 years after Ken Thompson was ousted.

Chairman Lanty Smith has been appointed interim CEO. Is this new management what these companies need to get back on track? Are there more troubles for financials?

I think their values will go lower until they get a feel for who will take over. There are probably more Writedowns to come.

These banks have not gone beyond the problem of the Subprime Mortgage Industry and there is possibly another shoe to fall.

If the Credit Deterioration continues, there will be many more problems.

Critics are blaming Alan Greenspan for today’s financial crisis, but now the former Federal Reserve chief is fighting back.

Greenspan sets the record straight in an exclusive interview.

Part 1

Part 2

What are others saying about Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan unfair blame for sub prime crisis…

The Stock Market Crash Of October, 1987

For release at 2:00 p.m. EDT

The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee - FOMC on Tuesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on March 18, 2008, and of the conference call held on March 10, 2008.

The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board’s Annual Report. The description of economic and financial conditions contained in these minutes is based solely on the information that was available to the Committee at the time of the meeting.

The FOMC minutes can be viewed on the Board’s website at
http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomc.htm#calendars.

FBI: 2008 Could Be Record Year for Suspicious Activity Reports

Financial institutions filed a record 15,000 suspicious activity reports (including instances of mortgage fraud) with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the first fiscal quarter of this year. If the pace keeps up, more than 60,000 SARs will be filed, outstripping 2007, when 46,717 reports hit the system.

In a briefing on January 29, FBI officials said the agency has 14 major “corporate fraud” investigations under way involving mortgage or related companies. The focus, officials said, was on subprime mortgage firms, their accounting and lending practices, and insider trading. The agency did not specify any cases, but it is well known that the collapse of New Century Financial, is the subject of a major probe.

As previously reported, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the failure of several subprime firms, focusing on, among other things, their investment bankers, including Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley.

We have seen $90 billion of writedowns to date. Standard and Poor’s is saying that you can super size that order. Writedowns total losses are expected to be $265 billion or more.

So far, Wall Street has been shouldering the brunt of the losses. S&P says the next losses will affect smaller financial institutions including regional banks in the U.S., credit unions, and lenders in Europe and Asia.

Just yesterday, UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, wrote down $14 billion of assets.

Bush Praises Subprime Mortgage Strategy

President Bush says it is “going to take a while to work through this mortgage bubble,” but that his administration does have a strategy for helping subprime borrowers refinance or restructure their mortgages.

Bush said in a speech on the economy that the Treasury Department has worked with mortgage servicers so borrowers don’t “get pinched as their interest rates reset”. He also noted that the Federal Housing Administration is helping to refinance subprime borrowers and could do more if Congress passes an FHA modernization bill. (The Senate just passed such a bill, which now has to be reconciled with the House version).

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested that the federal government could provide cash assistance for distressed homeowners who can’t afford their mortgage payments.

Mr. Bush stressed in his speech that he is against bailouts for lenders, speculators, and people who bought a house they couldn’t afford. “But we can mitigate some of the issues, and I’m concerned about people who are credit worthy enough to live in their homes not being able to deal with these resets,” he said.

Federal Reserve To Revise Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act

The Federal Reserve Board will meet Dec. 18 to issue long-awaited revisions to its Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act regulations that address abuses associated with the subprime mortgage industry.

The proposed HOEPA rule will address prepayment penalties, failure to escrow taxes and insurance, stated income and low documentation lending, and ability to-repay standards.

In a letter to the Fed, 17 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee urged the Fed to act “forcefully” to protect consumers.

“We appreciate the fact that the Board is moving forward with a rule making under HOEPA, and expect the Board to meet the duty Congress entrusted to it to end the abusive practices … that have undermined confidence in the subprime mortgage market and the economy as a whole,” the Dec. 7 letter says.