美国国家公共电台 NPR--Mortgage applications drop as fewer people are able to afford homes

Mortgage¹ applications drop as fewer people are able to afford homes

Transcript²

Higher mortgage rates are putting a damper on the housing market. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home are down 21% from a year ago as fewer and fewer people can afford to buy.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Higher mortgage rates are putting a damper on the housing market. Mortgage applications to buy a home are down by a lot because people just can't afford it right now. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE³: Kim Drotar (ph) lives in St. Louis. And she's a public schoolteacher with a daughter in fifth grade. But she's renting an apartment, and she does not have the best neighbors.

KIM DROTAR: They're 19, 20 and have parties and bang on my door in the middle of the night and, you know, just to be jerks⁴.

ARNOLD: So she's been looking to buy a house.

DROTAR: I just want some place where she can ride her bike and make friends with the neighbors and play with the kids and they can come over.

ARNOLD: But she keeps getting outbid on offers. And now with the Fed raising interest rates to fight inflation⁵, mortgage rates have risen so much that she can only afford a home of around $200,000, which seems pretty impossible to find and buy even in Missouri.

DROTAR: I can't qualify⁶ for as much of a mortgage as I could have. And the hope was that that would then lower the prices of houses, but it hasn't. And it's been really discouraging because it's pricing me out of the market fully⁷.

ARNOLD: Many Americans are in the same boat, which is why mortgage applications to buy a house are down more than 20% from a year ago. When you factor in the increase in prices and mortgage rates together, in some places it's gotten nearly twice as expensive to buy the same house compared to just two years ago.

DARYL FAIRWEATHER: Housing is getting less affordable⁸ for everyone at every level.

ARNOLD: Daryl Fairweather is the chief economist⁹ for Redfin. She says after the last housing crash, we didn't build enough homes for a very long time. And that lack of supply is the biggest force pushing up prices.

FAIRWEATHER: Well, we spent a whole decade under-building. We built fewer homes in the 2010s than any decade going back to the 1960s. So I think it's going to take at least another decade to dig ourselves out of this hole.

ARNOLD: Fairweather says states changing zoning laws to allow for smaller, more affordable homes built closer together, that would help a lot. Meanwhile, continuing to rent a place often is not a great option either.

FAIRWEATHER: I'm not just concerned about homeownership becoming less attainable¹⁰ because rents are going up just as fast as home prices.

ARNOLD: Redfin has a new report out this morning showing that rents are up 15% nationally from a year ago. And the median listed rent for an available place rose above $2,000 a month for the first time. Kim Drotar in St. Louis says her rent is going up, too. So she's still hoping she somehow manages to find a place to buy before too long.

Chris Arnold, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANTIGUOS HOP'S "AHORA VAMOS")

1 mortgage   

n.抵押，抵押贷款；vt.抵押

参考例句：

• He's having a lot of trouble paying his mortgage every month.他付每月的抵押借款利息有很大的困难。
• The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.银行拒绝接受任何土地抵押。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 jerks   

猛拉( jerk的第三人称单数 )； （使…）猝然一动[颤动]

参考例句：

• The Physical Jerks would begin in three minutes. 再有三分钟，体操就要开始啦。 来自英汉文学
• The absence of knee jerks should suggest the diagnosis. 膝反射消失应说明此诊断。

5 inflation   

n.胀大，夸张，通货膨胀

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• The inflation of the airbed took several minutes.给空气床垫充气花了几分钟时间。

6 qualify   

vt.取得资格，有资格，限定，描述；vi.取得资格，有资格

参考例句：

• I won't qualify until next year.我明年才具备资格。
• You must qualify yourself for the post.你必须使自己具备担任这一工作的资格。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 attainable   

a.可达到的，可获得的

参考例句：

• They set the limits of performance attainable. 它们确定着可达到的运行限度。
• If objectives are to be meaningful to people, they must be clear, attainable, actionable, and verifiable. 如果目标对人们是具有意义的，则目标必须是清晰的，能达到的，可以行动的，以及可供检验的。