Foreclosures down slightly, but no signs of stabilization yet

Anyone hoping for a housing bottom will likely be discouraged by the RealtyTrac's foreclosure report this morning. U.S. foreclosure filings topped 300,000 for the third straight month in May and are expected to hit a record 1.8 million by the end of the first half of the year. The number of filings fell 6 percent from last month, but as foreclosures continue to mount there are clear signs that the banks aren't buying into President Obama's mortgage rescue plan.

When President Obama announced the program earlier this year with great fanfare, he promised to save the homes of 9 million people, but based on the steady flow of new foreclosure filings, the banks are not cooperating. Once the cramdown provision -- which would have given bankruptcy courts the ability to reduce the principal of mortgages underwater -- was killed by the Senate, there were no teeth in the Obama plan.