Time Right for FNM's 'Smart Commute' Plan

Fannie Mae came out with a mortgage program several years ago called Smart Commute that rewarded people for buying homes near public transportation by granting them additional buying power.

It wasn't well-promoted and pretty quickly joined the land of the living dead --still ongoing but not actively marketed -- where it resides even today.

But Fannie Mae(FNM Quote) was simply a few years ahead of itself, I think. If the executives over there had any sense, they would pull the Smart Commute mortgage out of their files, dust it off and promote the heck out of it.

When the lending concern introduced this mortgage in 2003, credit was cheap, as were gasoline prices, but housing prices were high and rising higher. This made exurban homes, with their double-high ceilings, multiple bathrooms and long drives to job centers the best option for many homebuying families. ...