Monthly Archives: June 2010

A Final Spitzer Holdover Departs Governor’s Office, Heads to Moynihan Station

Catching up on a little news from the long weekend, minutes before the close of business Friday, the Paterson administration announced that Tim Gilchrist, a top aide to the governor on all things infrastructure and transportation, would leave his job as senior advisor to the governor.

His new job: president of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation, the state agency charged (for at least the past decade) with expanding Penn Station into the Corinthian column-lined Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue.

Mr. Gilchrist was the highest ranking member of the Spitzer administration left in the executive chamber. He initially served as deputy secretary for economic development and transportation; as his fellow deputy secretaries each left, he took on more turf, coordinating how to spend the state’s stimulus money received from the federal government

Full Article Here – Via NY Observer

Private Mortgage Insurance Easier to Obtain

WITH private mortgage insurance considerably tougher to get last year than at any point in decades, many borrowers flocked to loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

They had little choice. Lenders typically will not offer mortgages to borrowers with down payments below 20 percent, unless the borrowers get insurance to indemnify the lender in the event of a default. And the federal government was the only entity willing to back many of these borrowers during the housing market slump.

Now private mortgage insurance, or P.M.I., could be making a comeback. Some mortgage insurance companies like Genworth Financial and Radian Guaranty have been easing underwriting standards — sometimes eliminating geographic restrictions, in the case of Genworth, for instance, and offering insurance to some borrowers with down payments of as little as 5 percent.

Rohit Gupta, the chief commercial officer for Genworth’s domestic mortgage insurance business, attributed the relaxed standards to a more stable housing market, along with improved financial conditions for the nation’s major mortgage insurance companies.

Full Article Here – Via NY Times