美国国家公共电台 NPR--The pain of rising mortgage rates when you're waiting for your home to be built

The pain of rising mortgage rates when you're waiting for your home to be built

Transcript¹

These days Ari Brooks² is trying really hard not to think about mortgage rates.

"I try not to, because it gives me a lot of anxiety," she says. Brooks and her family live just outside Boise, Idaho, which has turned into one of the toughest places in the entire country to buy a house.

People have been moving there in droves, driving prices up 82% in just the past three years, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

So after getting outbid again and again, she and her husband TR Brooks decided³ to buy a house from a homebuilder before it was built.

"It seemed very attractive in that there's no bidding war," he says. "There's a price you agree on. And it doesn't go up while you wait for it to be built."

Ari and TR Brooks stood on the land where their new home would be built the day they agreed to buy it back in February of 2021. But the home is still not completed and mortgage rates have risen dramatically.

TR Brooks

So they signed a contract to buy a house for $430,000.

But that was a year and a half ago. They thought it would take about 9 months for the house to be finished. But labor⁴ shortages and pandemic supply chain delays have kept builders waiting on everything from roof trusses to windows and doors. Meanwhile, interest rates have taken an enormous jump, from about 3% up to around 6%.

Higher mortgage rates make the same house far more expensive.

The couple is lucky that when rates started rising they locked in a mortgage rate for 11 months from the homebuilder's lending division. Most lenders don't even offer such long term rate locks.

"We have a rate lock that's in the high 3s," Ari says.

But that expires in a few months, and their house still isn't finished. And if their rate lock expires, buying the house will get much more expensive with today's higher mortgage rates.

On a $400,000 loan, that adds more than $500 a month to the mortgage payment.

A lot of new construction homebuyers are getting hit with that price shock now.

"I mean this is real life stuff ," says Kenny Parcell, a realtor in Spanish Fork, Utah, who says he's working with young families facing the same situation. "[It's] the dream of homeownership and they're watching it go away."

$30,000 down-payments at stake

Parcell says some of his clients signed contracts to buy homes, but now they can't qualify for a mortgage to buy the same house they could afford just six months ago.

"We've had 10 people we've been working with that are canceling," he says. "There's a lot of tears shed, you have real empathy for these people."

Parcell says families have put down deposits of $20,000 or $30,000 when they agreed to buy the house. Now they could lose that money.

"Some builders are willing to give that back ," Parcell says, because they view the situation as a hardship and figure they can sell the home for more money now anyway.

"Other builders said, sorry," he says. "It was non-refundable."

So he says people are scrambling⁵, lawyering up to try to get the money back. Some are trying to borrow money from family members to help them buy the house.

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Others are considering adjustable⁶ rate loans which have lower monthly payments, though with that comes the risk of higher payments down the road if rates keep rising.

Meanwhile Parcell says people are still stuck renting and many landlords are raising rents.

"They can't afford to stay in their rental⁷ and they can't afford to lose their construction deposit or their earnest money," he says. "They're in a real pickle⁸."

Saving up for a bigger down-payment

Back in Boise, Ari and TR Brooks are in better shape. TR is a psychology⁹ professor. Ari is a social worker. So they have solid incomes and even if they do get hit with that much higher mortgage payment, they could still afford to buy the house. It would make money very tight though.

"We've got a kiddo in daycare full time," Ari says, adding that they're already feeling the higher cost of gas and groceries and the general inflation in the economy right now.

"We also have a car that's a bit of a time bomb," says her husband. "We have some expenses coming up."

Meanwhile, the couple has been saving up all they can for a bigger down payment, so they can borrow less money for their mortgage if they have to pay that much higher interest rate.

1 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。

2 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 adjustable   

adj.可调整的，可校准的

参考例句：

• More expensive cameras have adjustable focusing.比较贵的照相机有可调焦距。
• The chair has the virtue of being adjustable.这种椅子具有可调节的优点。

7 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

8 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

9 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。