华盛顿邮报 私募股权如何改变了美国郊区?(上)

Investors¹ purchased a record share of houses in America's top metropolitan³ areas last year.

去年，投资者在美国顶级大都市地区购买了创纪录的房屋份额。

According to data from Redfin, nearly 1 in 7 homes in Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, and other major cities were sold to investors, like large corporations, local companies, or even just wealthy individuals.

根据Redfin的数据，在亚特兰大、迈阿密、底特律和其他主要城市，近七分之一的房子被卖给了如大公司、当地公司、甚至只是富人的投资者。

And a new analysis by The Washington Post shows that these purchases happened disproportionately in Black neighborhoods and in the South.

《华盛顿邮报》的一项新分析显示，这些购买行为在黑人社区和南方不成比例。

Today, we take you just outside of Nashville, a metro² area where investors purchased 16% of homes last year, and we'll take a look at one company that has scooped⁴ up houses in suburbs around the country.

今天，我们将带你来到纳什维尔郊外，这个大都市去年有16%的房屋被投资者购买，我们将会看到一家在全国郊区抢购房屋的公司。

Tammy Sue Lane is in a suburb of Nashville.

塔米苏巷位于纳什维尔郊区。

It's really an exurb. It's a new neighborhood.

这真是远郊。这是个新社区。

Most of the houses are about 15 years old.

大多数房子都有15年的历史了。

They were designed, built as starter homes, marketed as starter homes.

它们被作为入门房设计，建造，销售。

They were -- All cost less than $200,000 15 years ago.

15年前，它们的成本都不到20万美元。

And they were a perfect place for a lot of people to buy their first home.

对于很多人来说，这是他们购买第一套房子的理想之地。

So, in many ways, Tammy Sue Lane is the kind of street you'll see in new suburbs all around America.

所以，在很多方面，塔米苏巷是你在美国新郊区会看到的那种街道。

But one of the things that makes it unusual and really drew our attention is that of the 32 homes there, 19 are owned by one very large company, and that company is called Progress Residential⁵.

但有一件事让这条街与众不同，也真正吸引了我们的注意，那就是在那里的32所房屋中，有19所属于一家非常大的公司，这家公司叫Progress Residential。

Renting out houses in suburbia has never been a business dominated by large companies, but with private-equity-backed companies like Progress Residential entering the market in more and more places, that is starting to change.

郊区房屋租赁从来都不是由大公司主导的行业，但随着Progress Residential等私募股权支持的公司进入越来越多的地区，这种情况开始发生变化。

I sometimes think of them as running horizontal apartment houses.

我有时认为他们经营的是统一公寓住宅。

They take a suburb and turn it into their own property in a way because they own so much of it.

他们把一个郊区变成了自己的财产，因为他们拥有太多的公寓了。

The American suburbs may seem like an unlikely place for the flow of secretive global money,

美国郊区似乎不太可能成为全球秘密资金流动的地方，

but the Pandora Papers investigation⁶ reveals how Progress Residential has made millions of dollars scooping⁷ up homes across the U.S. and then renting them back to families who can no longer afford to buy them.

但“潘多拉文件”(Pandora Papers)调查揭示了Progress Residential是如何通过将美国的房子抢购一空，然后将其租回给这些再也无力购买的家庭，从而赚取数百万美元的。

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

3 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

4 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 scooping   

n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• Heated ice cream scoop is used for scooping really cold ice cream. 加热的冰淇淋勺是用来舀非常凉的冰淇淋的。 来自互联网
• The scoop-up was the key phase during a scooping cycle. 3个区间中，铲取区间是整个作业循环的关键。 来自互联网