Briefcase

Spokane County foreclosures down

There were 170 new foreclosure filings on Spokane County homes in June, down from 204 in May, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac.

The new listings bring the number of homes in foreclosure to 1,127. There were another 2,430 homes for sale in Spokane County last month.

The numbers come amid a midyear national foreclosure report that shows a 29 percent decrease in filings during the same month last year.

Yet there’s a grim angle, RealtyTrac reported: Foreclosure filing delays have created backlog of about 1 million filings.

“We estimate that as many as 1 million foreclosure actions that should have taken place in 2011 will now happen in 2012, or perhaps even later. This causes an ominous shadow over the housing market, where recovery is unlikely to happen until the current and forthcoming inventory of distressed properties can be whittled down to a manageable number.”

California, Nevada and Arizona have the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

John Stucke

Numerica choses new chief executive

Spokane-based Numerica Credit Union has named a new chief executive officer: Carla Altepeter, the longtime CEO of CitizensFirst Credit Union in Oshkosh, Wis.

Altepeter replaces Dennis Cutter, who will retire Aug. 31 after 40 years as Numerica’s president and CEO.

Altepeter has served as president and CEO of CitizensFirst since 1992. She will begin at Numerica Sept. 1.

Altepeter received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

She is married and has four grown children.

Numerica has more than 90,000 members throughout Central and Eastern Washington and North Idaho and more than $1 billion in assets.

Scott Maben

Post Foods going independent

ST. LOUIS – Ralcorp Holdings Inc. is spinning off Post Foods, the cereal maker, to focus on building its generic foods business, it said Thursday.

The food maker, based in St. Louis, expects to complete the tax-free split in four to six months.

Ralcorp makes store-brand foods for grocers and other retailers, as well as food-service industry products.

Post makes such brands as Honey Bunches of Oats, Grape Nuts and Post Raisin Bran.

The newly independent Post is to issue up to $1.2 billion in debt and turn over roughly $1 billion to Ralcorp under the terms announced Thursday. Both companies would be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange following the split.

Shares of Ralcorp were down more than 4 percent in after-hours trading.

Associated Press