Title

Archive for March 21st, 2009

Federal government offers mortgage help

Okay, so you’ve been living in your home in Pinellas County and faithfully making your mortgage payments, but your home’s value has been steadily slipping and now you owe more than the place is worth. You keep reading about new government programs that are supposed to help, but you need to find out more.

Fear not – there’s a place you can go to find the help you need.

That place is www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov. It’s a website designed to describe the benefits of a federal program called, well, Making Home Affordable. It offers homeowners a number of opportunities to either refinance their mortgages, or modify the mortgages they already have.

The Making Home Affordable program is financed with $75 billion for loan servicers and borrowers. Its designers say that it should be able to offer mortgage help to four million homeowners who need to modify their loans to make them more affordable, or who need to negotiate short sales of their properties with their mortgage providers.

Officials say that the money will allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance up to five million loans they own (or guarantee). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have set up web sites and toll-free hotlines for borrowers who need to determine if their mortgages fall under Fannie or Freddie. Fannie Mae’s is www.fanniemae.com/homeaffordable (phone number (800) 732-6643); Freddie Mac’s is www.freddiemac.com/avoidforeclosure (phone number (800) 373-3343).

Some borrowers might prefer to get information first from their own mortgage servicer. To do that, go to www.HopeNow.com and fill out an application. That web site is operated by an alliance of mortgage servicers and nonprofit counselors. You can talk to them on the phone at (888) 995-4673.

No matter where you live in North Pinellas County – Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater, Safety Harbor, or anywhere else, for that matter – the information offered applies to you.

Tags: Add new tag, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Mortgage, North Pinellas County

Jacarandas add color to Pinellas County

If you’re not from around these parts but you come to visit in the spring, you may be surprised at the bright blue trees that can be found all over Pinellas County.

Jacaranda tree

The bright purplish-blue flowers give an almost electric coloration to the trees, and when the leaves drop (after about eight weeks) they create a royal-blue carpet on the green grass. Just gorgeous.

These are jacaranda trees, and they add a beautiful splash of color that announces the coming of spring.

Florida has lost of non-indiginous plants (and animals, too) that the state would like to get rid of, but the jacarandas are more welcome, even though they are not native to Florida.

There are more than 50 types of jacarandas, but most of the ones you see in Florida come from the Amazon river valley area of South America.

Tags: North Pinellas County, Palm Harbor