Saturday, April 11, 2009

Resources for laid off homeowners?

My No. 1 worry about my jobless status is losing our home. We have a bit of a buffer with my severance and our tax return (hopefully it will show up soon), but not a huge one. If something doesn't happen in a few months and the shit hits the fan, we might be moving in with parents.

We were in the process — and when I say in the process, I mean trying to set up an appointment with our mortgage company — of refinancing, but when we called for the appointment, we got stiff-armed, told to wait until the bank knew more about what the stimulus package meant for responsible middle class homeowners like us who make our payments but could benefit from a smaller monthly output.

Well, that got thrown out the window when I lost my job — at least I thought. From what I've read on the Interweb — and granted, not everything you read, particularly on your computer, is true — we still might have some options for refinancing, or at least getting a break on payments while I'm unemployed. Believe it or not, banks don't want any more foreclosures.

If you're in a similar situation and don't know where to start, try this site. And, if you have any advice to share with me or anyone else out there in Unemployment Land, chime in yo.
Posted by at 5:41 PM

3 comments:

  1. Nice job with the blog!

    We've included it in our Local Feeds.

    And remember...

    The 1st Friday in May is Always No Pants Day!

    www.BoiseNoPantsDay.com
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  2. I applaud your blog! And I can relate. It's funny, the high hopes we all had in our Scripps classes. No one told us that after we busted our butts doing grunt work and gaining experience over the past 10 years, that news organizations would rather hire inexperienced--ahem, I mean affordable--recent grads for top market jobs. I am a freelance reporter/anchor in the Cleveland market, but being freelance during a recession doesn't exactly bode well. You can guess how many stations have called me over the past nine months.

    And speaking of nine months, I feel like this whole unemployment thing poses interesting challenges for women... especially for us thirty-somethings. If you're even thinking about starting a family, unemployment throws a real wrench in the plan. I, for one, feel like someone hit the "pause" button on my life. I've actually had friends tell me, "You should just have kids now. I mean, you're home." It almost sounds like a logical idea... except for the whole semi-important money issue. That and the odds of landing a job after getting pregnant. I mean, let's be honest. No news station is going to hire an anchor who's six months pregnant. It's almost as if choosing to start a family is acknowledging that you will not be working for at least the next year.

    Now, if you choose to go the other route and bipass the family thing until a job rolls around, you then earn the fabulous title of stay-at-home non-mom. It's one of my personal favorites and often implies a certain financial stability in the household, but in truth, who is financially stable on one income in this day and age?

    Glad to see you're not letting your skills go to waste! Hang in there!
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  3. Here's another place to check out: http://www.unemploymentlifeline.com/

    Working America and the AFL-CIO put it together to help unemployed workers find the resources available to them. It's zip code searchable and the database includes well over 50,000 resources like credit counselors, affordable health clinics, and so on.

    Then we have forums and a wiki for people to connect and share tips with others in similar situations -- the same kind of hope of forming community and letting people know they're not alone that you seem to be going for. And we have action alerts, so that people can join their voices to fight for an economy that works for everyone.
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