MORTGAGES | Hunt for a house near a bus stop or a train station, and tack on a MASS-TRANSIT BONUS to your loan.

LOCATION is critical when you're buying a house--especially if the house is within a quarter-mile of a bus stop or a half-mile of a train station. Buying a house near mass transit in certain cities qualifies you for a much bigger loan than you would normally be eligible for.

In Chicago, a program sponsored by Fannie Mae helped Kimberly and Christopher Bolton add $30,000 to their mortgage eligibility, allowing them to look at more-expensive homes, says Kimberly. Last year the Boltons bought a three-bedroom, three-bath condo on Chicago's South Shore, near the train that takes Kimberly to work.

While borrowers aren't required to leave their cars at home, me assumption is that they will. A study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which helped design the program, found that mass-transit users net $300 a month in savings by cutting the cost of maintaining, insuring and fueling a car.

Any home buyer with good credit is eligible for the program, which is available through certain lenders in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle (call 800-732-6643 for details). Similar programs are under consideration in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The 15- and 30-year fixed-rate loans are capped at $275,000, require a 3% down payment and cannot be used to refinance.

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