Mattamy Homes U.S. Group, originally the largest home builder in Canada, will start construction on three, four and even five bedroom homes at Old Sebastian Point soon, according to Dennis Ginder, division president for the Jacksonville region. Homes feature attractive locations, quality amenities in the interiors, and best of all affordability for families, with pricing from the $190,000s.

Not only are these homes built with families like yours in mind, they provide ample living space, ranging in size from 1,700 square feet to 2,900 square feet, on 60-foot home sites. Old Sebastian Point is a picturesque, preserve community, which borders the Red House Branch Creek and the San Sebastian River.

Ginder says inventory homes will be available for sale starting this month, and the model home in Old Sebastian Point will open for viewing in January 2011. For more information, please visit www.mattamyhomes.com.

The first award was given to Mattamy Homes for their Santiago model, in their Durbin Crossing community in St. Johns, Fla. Excellent for families, the home has two stories, four bedrooms, and offers a loft and optional fifth bedroom, and two-and-a-half baths. The Santiago has a total of 2,715 square feet of living space, and a two-car garage, and comes at a price of $393,990 as shown.

The second award was for the Emerald model home, in the Sevilla at World Golf Village community, in St. Augustine, Fla. Located at 109 Casa Sevilla Ave., it is also a two-story home, with a spacious 2,189 square feet of living space. The model home features three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and also a loft, and over-sized two-car garage, priced at $324,805 as shown.

“The Santiago and Emerald model homes have been very popular with new home buyers,” said Dennis Ginder, division president for Mattamy Homes in the Jacksonville region. “We are delighted with the recognition from the professional home building industry.”

These prestigious awards were presented to Mattamy Homes earlier this month, at a banquet at the Marsh Creek Country Club. The St. Johns County 2010 Parade of Homes was sponsored by the St. Johns Builders Council.

Mattamy Homes added divisions in the U.S. in 2003, and is originally based in Canada, the largest and most active builder there with revenues exceeding $1.3 billion. Communities and offices in the U.S. are located in Jacksonville and Orlando, Charlotte, Phoenix and Minneapolis. For more information on buying a Mattamy home, and about the Gold Awards, visit www.mattamyhomes.com, or contact:

Kerry Soltis – Marketing Manager in Jacksonville – (904) 279-9502

Dennis Ginder – Division President in Jacksonville – (904) 279-9500

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications – (407) 644-4142

If  you owe more on your home than the home’s current value, the new HAMP program offers hope. It divides your mortgage into two parts – one for the amount of the current property value, and one for the difference. The second one is interest-free, and it’s forgiven over three years.

The Equifax Personal Finance Blog http://www.equifax.com/blog/  recently published an article about the new program. Written by Ilyce Glink, the article is entitled “Want a Principal Reduction Loan Modification? The New Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Rules You’ll Have to Live By.”

To qualify, homeowners must owe more than 115 percent of the current value of their home, they must be in default on their mortgages (or are about to be), and their house payment must be more than 31 percent of their income. Loans acquired through FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not eligible for the HAMP program because those lenders will be announcing programs of their own later in the year. Some private banks are also introducing their own programs for people who don’t qualify for government-sponsored assistance.

If you think the program might help you, check out the details at the Equifax Personal Finance blog today and get started. One of the benefits of the new program: you should get your answer in 30 days. People used to have to wait months and go through a modification trial period. And if you don’t qualify for this program because you’ve lost your job, you’ll find information on the blog for a separate HAMP program designed just for you.

Snopes.com says that “prudent” real estate agents advise their home sellers to accompany the burial with a combination of making home repairs, staging their home, and pricing it correctly for the market.

It’s not surprising that burying St. Joseph in the yard did not make the list of home selling tips that recently appeared in the Equifax Personal Finance Blog. Instead, real estate expert Ilyce Glink talks about a different modern-day phenomenon: reality TV.

Rather than helping to sell homes, TV shows that follow homeowners as they prepare homes for market or follow buyers as they make their selections could be making the process harder on the rest of us. According to Glink, buyers who’ve watched hours of programming showcasing homes staged for television have extremely high expectations for the homes they visit. So her first tip: “make your house look good enough to be on TV.”

The article, “Selling a House: 4 Tips to Get More Buyers through Your Door,” continues with several practical and proven ideas for selling your home. Glink starts by acknowledging the difficulty of selling in today’s climate, when the number of people looking for a home has fallen by as much as 40 percent since the passing of the tax credit deadline.

Her tips give recommendations for getting your house online, researching your competition and pricing. The pricing section discusses the effect of changing appraisal rules and why those rules could mean you need to price your house lower.

For Glink’s complete, sensible advice on this and other real estate topics, visit the Equifax Personal Finance Blog. And if you have had success using a statue of St. Joseph to sell a home, we’d like to hear about it right here!

If that’s you – or if you’ve already purchased and are waiting for your check to arrive in the mail – be aware that credits are coming more slowly than anticipated. The reasons have to do with a combination of the workload for the IRS (an estimated 1.8 million credits filed with 2009 taxes) and the IRS’s need to get this right after criticisms regarding the distribution of the first tax credit in 2008.

In the article, “Home Buyer Tax Credit Cash: 7 Things You Need to Know When Filing for the Home Buyer Tax Credit,” tax expert Eva Rosenberg offers guidance for filing your credit request correctly and for following up if the IRS mistakenly denies your request. The article appears on the Equifax Personal Finance blog, where Rosenberg serves as a regular expert contributor.

Her key points for filing? Provide lots of documentation, and if anything seems unclear, write out an explanation. Her blog lists appropriate documentation to demonstrate to the IRS that you qualify for the credit. If you’ve already been denied and you’re certain you should have received the credit, she tells you the steps to take when you resubmit your tax return.

The Equifax Personal Finance blog also offers guidance no matter where you are in your financial life, from checking your credit report for the first time to preparing for retirement. It’s a must read for basic training of the financial variety.

The World Golf Village open house will be featuring active adult homes in the Cascades neighborhood. Plan on visiting the community on Saturday, February 6th from 1 to 4 p.m. in order to participate in the Sneak Peek. Considering it is also Super Bowl weekend, you can be assured that Davidson Realty has some game-day related gifts and prizes to give away.

Anyone looking to retire to a golf front home in Florida should not miss this opportunity. St. Johns County real estate agents will be on hand to answer any question you may have, like “What exactly makes this an active adult home?” You can also get in-depth details about all of the amenities associated with the master-planned development in general as well as the specific Cascades neighborhood. Yes, the Cascades has its own long list of amenities just for neighborhood residents.

See you Saturday!

• The Crest has two St. Augustine custom homes under construction.  It is one of the exclusive neighborhoods of The Estates and prices start at $600,000.  Homesites are generously sized, shaded with ancient oaks and pines and ideally situated near the King & Bear Clubhouse and the Swim & Tennis Center.
• Expected to be complete in February 2010 is the new spec home from Providence Homes in GroveWood at The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village.  The 2,559-square-foot home will have 4 bedrooms and three baths and is priced in the mid-$300,000′s.  GroveWood is a family oriented community.
• Laterra Links is breaking ground on new multi-unit buildings, each with 4 upscale coach homes of 2,100 to 2,700 square feet.
• The Cascades, the active adult retirement community at World Golf Village, is under the new ownership of Dockstreet Communities and predicting growth in 2010.  The ground breaking of six new models are in walking distance of Cascade’s clubhouse and amenities.

The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village is reflecting the real estate market recovery.  Upward trends are encouraging price stability and great values available are helping to increase transactions.  Also playing a part in the market recovery is the availability of low interest rates and, in some cases, the Federal homeowners incentives.

The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village is Northeast Florida’s first choice for gracious living.  Situated between Jacksonville and St. Augustine, the community offers distictive neighborhoods from gated, custom estate homes and resort condos to stylish coach homes and affordable single-family homes.  It is home to world-renowned championship golf, the acclaimed World Golf Hall of Fame and IMAX Theater.  Other amenities include a year-round heated Junior Olympic-sized swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, playground, fitness center, and club house.  Dotted with parks and walking paths, the Neighborhoods of World Golf Village is popular with nature lovers.  Restaurants, shops and retailers are conveniently located.  For more information about The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village, follow them on Twitter.

The BuildSmart® program from Florida Power & Light promises lower utility bills.  The energy efficiency rating on these homes is as much as 72 percent more efficient than current State of Florida building codes.

Homeowners, Do you want a home that pays you back each month? With a BuildSmart home you could be saving 30% or more on your monthly energy bills. Live more comfortably while conserving Florida’s natural resources.

The new buildings marks the newest phase of construction on the popular coach homes in the Laterra Links neighborhood at World Golf Village. The Laterra Links concrete-constructed coach homes will continue to range from two to four bedrooms and 2,160 square feet to 2,780 square feet, with two-car garages and screened lanais. Various high-end finishes are offered at Laterra Links, including granite countertops, stainless appliances, wood floors and more. One great thing about Laterra Links is that it is situated around golf holes through eight of the King & Bear fairways. Meaning, many of these homes will feature beautiful views of the golf course.

Also, Laterra Links just recently completed construction on a 7,200 square foot amenity center that features a fitness center, pool, veranda, event room and kitchen. What more could you ask for in a new home? Be sure to visit World Golf Village to get more information on these new homes.

While there, we discovered four fully decorated model homes in Bella Terra that showcase some of the most popular floorplans – the Milan, the Versailles, the Portofino and the Castillo. Each home illustrates the endless options that you can do with your home at Bella Terra. For example, the Castillo floor plan features an expansive courtyard to help the indoor and outdoor living spaces flow together seamlessly. Well, the model home features a pool in the courtyard, helping potential homebuyers visualize all of the possibilities for the open space. It’s definitely worth your time to pay a visit to the community and take a look at these model homes for yourself. Then, you can continue your tour around the community to see all of the St. Augustine homes in Palencia built by ICI Homes.