I heard an interesting story on NPR the other night. Unfortunately, it didn’t surprise me.

The story, which you can read a transcript of, said that as many as two-thirds of all Indiana mortgage brokers may lose their licenses. The big problem is that new state regulations require that at least one staff member at every Indiana mortgage brokerage pass a competency exam that allows them to oversee their office.

According to the story, agents from only about 300 of the about 1,000 brokerages have even tried taking the exam.

Indiana’s secretary of state isn’t planning on backing down from the ban. It will be interesting to see if all these mortgage brokerages lose their licenses because of this.

It’s just another fall for the mortgage-brokerage industry. During the housing boom of 2001 through 2006, mortgage brokerages flew high, as borrowers rushed to them in the hopes of getting low-cost mortgage money. Today, though, mortgage brokers are suffering from terrible public relations thanks to the subprime mortgage crisis and the number of bad loans many of these companies passed out.

Like I said, the NPR report didn’t surprise me. A lot of people have jumped into the mortgage-brokerage business with little training. I’m not surprised that they’d shy away from a competency exam.

I’ve long promoted the virtues of living close to your job. Nothing’s more wasteful than spending every weekday morning stuck on the highway.

Now, it turns out, that living just a short commute away from a major city can mean healthy home values, too.

A recent story on the NPR Website, which you can read here, says that housing prices have fallen the least in communities that are located just a short drive from major work centers. The story takes a look at the Washington, D.C. region. Housing prices in the metropolitan D.C. area, according to the story, did fall 11 percent in the last year. But nearby Ashburn, Va., which is located 40 miles from the center of D.C. has experienced a steeper fall, the story says.

The lesson here is clear: If you want your home to retain its value, it’s better to live somewhere where you’re not spending half the day driving to and from work.

You can always count on NPR — or National Public Radio for those who don’t know — to stir up your emotions. The venerable radio station, and its Web site, did this to me again with its story on You Walk Away.

You can read the story here, on NPR’s Web site. Basically, You Walk Away is saying that it’s OK to lose your house to foreclosure. The company, for a fee, will help you through the process. The homeowners, at least according to You Walk Away, can simply leave the cares of their old mortgage behind, without looking back.

The mortgage industry calls this practice of voluntarily walking away from mortgages “ruthless default.” Some homeowners, and the folks behind You Walk Away, refer to it as good business sense.

This is a sticky issue. Some would argue that many  homeowners are facing foreclosures largely because mortgage lenders have been greedy, and have pushed borrowers into loans with artificially low initial interest rates. When those rates jump to normal levels, the homeowners can no longer afford their monthly mortgage payments.

Others, though, would argue that borrowers have only themselves to blame for their predicaments. It’s their job to research mortgage loans carefully. It’s also their job to face their financial responsibilities, including their monthly mortgage payments. Walking away, without any attempt to pay back their loans, is unethical.

Here’s where I fall: If you’re a homeowner facing foreclosure, call your mortgage lender and work out a solution. Mortgage lenders will do everything they can to keep you in your home. No one benefits when a home falls into foreclosure, especially not mortgage lenders.

Simply walking away from your foreclosure? That strikes me as a pretty sleazy way to go.