Greenspan says worst of credit crisis over: sources

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan speaks at the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture at the International Financial Corporation in Washington October 21, 2007.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that the worst of the credit crisis is over, according to sources who attended a speech he delivered in New York.

Greenspan also said house prices still had a long way to fall and that it was unlikely they would stabilize by year-end, according to meeting attendees who provided Reuters details of the speech at the Alternative Public Strategies Conference.

Conference organizers said Greenspan had requested that members of the media intending to cover his speech could only do so in their personal capacity and would not be allowed to report on whatever he said.

As chairman of the Fed, Greenspan oversaw the reduction of interest rates to as low as 1 percent, which some critics charge provided fuel for the real estate bubble. Greenspan has vehemently rejected assertions that he is the cause of the problem.

The attendees, who declined to be identified by name, said Greenspan mentioned that U.S. growth was likely to be sluggish for an extended period of time and that a so-called doomsday scenario was unlikely to materialize.

The U.S economy is reeling from a housing-led slowdown, with some analysts convinced it is already in a recession despite a 0.6 percent growth rate in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)