Web Sites Will Help Safeguard Borrowers

Freddie Mac, a major supplier of funds for mortgages, is setting up a Web site designed to help borrowers avoid unscrupulous lenders, especially in the area of predatory mortgage or home equity loans.

The Web site, www.dontborrowtrouble.com will be up and running in a couple of weeks and will have phone numbers to call if you find yourself in trouble.

The Freddie Mac site follows the recent launch of another interesting Web site, www.knowledgeplex.org, designed by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Urban Land Institute and several other partners.

The site is primarily designed to help policymakers access and exchange information on affordable housing and community development issues. But it is a potentially useful site for consumers to explore, too, with “hot topics” that focus on issues such as predatory lending and approaches to spurring low-income homeownership.

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Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service.