It has opened new offices in 20 cities, including New York, St. Louis, Houston, Cleveland, and Miami. Barry Zigas, executive director of Fannie Mae's National Housing Impact Division, said being on the ground in these cities has helped Fannie Mae in designing new loan products that suit the needs of each city. Fannie has also spent $3.4 billion in testing new underwriting approaches to finance home loans for targeted groups. Housing activists, such as Barbara Burnham, executive director of Fenway Community Development Corp., say it is too early to tell if the new programs will add up to real change. "It's very clear to me that what Fannie Mae is trying to do is support their seller servicers in increasing originations in populations that they haven't heretofore been particularly aggressive in," said Ms. Burnham, a recent appointee to Fannie Mae's National Advisory Council.