PBS高端访谈:要为新一轮的止赎危机做好准备

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: One of the gaping¹ wounds of the housing crisis and the great recession that immediately followed it was a huge jump in the number of foreclosures in cities and regions around the country.

　　In many ways, the housing market today is healthier.

　　But, as our economics correspondent Paul Solman tells us, that painful wound still stings in a number of communities. His story is part of our ongoing² reporting Making Sense, which airs every Thursday on the NewsHour.

　　MARC JOSEPH, Real Estate Agent: What I need to do with you now is, I need to walk through the house to make sure it's broom-swept condition.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Despite what you may have heard, the foreclosure crisis is far from over, especially in Florida, which leads the nation, more than 300,000 cases still pending³, another half-a-million homeowners delinquent⁴, hundreds of thousands of modified loans about to balloon in payments.

　　Ten days ago, David — we have been asked not to use his last name — was in the final stage of the process, cash for keys. He'd bought this house on a quiet street in Fort Myers in 2007 for $139,000 to live in with his brother and parents. His father died soon after.

　　MARC JOSEPH: By signing this, you are hereby releasing all claims. If you come back to this property, it's considered trespassing⁵.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: For a while, brothers and mother pooled their incomes from low-level jobs and her widow's pension to make the monthly payment. Then, one day in 2010, David came home to find that his mother, in her late 50s, had had a near-fatal heart attack.

　　DAVID, Florida: I had to take care of her. My brother works. I couldn't work. I had to take care of her.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: With no health insurance — this was pre-Obamacare — the family fell behind. Their original mortgage servicing company, Litton, agreed to modify the loan, reducing the interest rate, but not the principal, to cut payments by a third.

　　Two months later, though, Litton transferred the loan to Green Tree.

　　DAVID: Green Tree took over. The mortgage just started going up. And my 401(k), my bank account, my car that — the only car that I bought myself, an '03 Monte Carlo, brand-new, I had to get rid of that to pay for the mortgage.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Last year, an independent watchdog found that Green Tree failed eight out of 29 tests of how it treated struggling borrowers. But, by then, the house was already in foreclosure, saddled with $25,000 in back payments, fees and penalties due, on a property now appraised⁶ at $45,000.

　　Real estate agent Marc Joseph is wholly sympathetic, but he can see the lender's point of view.

　　MARC JOSEPH: He signed up for $139,800. He signed up for that. If I was holding the mortgage, and I'm watching TV right now, you owe me $139,000. Get out.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And that's the law. But the house is now worth only a third of that, as David has explained to his lenders.

　　DAVID: Oh, we will help you, we will help you. And then they give me the runaround and nothing gets done. And now I'm actually homeless once I hand you this key. I'm homeless in a little Ford⁷ Explorer. I know it's not your fault. I know it's not your fault.

　　MARC JOSEPH: I wish I could do a lot more. But the only thing I can do for you at this particular moment is to give you this check and wish you the best that this gets you somewhere. And I'm sorry.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And so, with $1,500 in exchange for clearing out, David, his brother, mother and two dogs joined the 600,000 Florida families who have lost their homes since 2007, 5.5 million homes lost nationwide.

　　In fact, with one out of four Florida homes hit with a foreclosure notice in recent years, it's hard to meet anyone in this state who hasn't been touched by the crisis.

　　Randy Miller⁸, who was changing the locks on David's house, managed to get a loan modification⁹ to hang on to his dream home. But even that wasn't enough when he and his wife both lost their jobs.

　　RANDY MILLER, Locksmith: We were just riding around, trying to figure out what we was going to do as things got worse and worse and worse and seeing all the foreclosures, and thought, you know, there has to be some way to get into this business.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And so they started trashout4u.com.

　　RANDY MILLER: We would do the lock changes, the inspection¹⁰, the clean-out, the pools. We was doing all of it.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Happy ending for the Millers¹¹, tragic¹² ending for the Meltons.

　　We met street musician Jimmi Melton while taping in Fort Myers. His father had been a science teacher here for 35 years. In 2007, Edward Melton Jr., needing a new roof on his house, fell for a refinancing pitch by American Home Mortgage, now out of business.

　　EDWARD “JIMMI” MELTON III: And they had given him a four-option adjustable¹³ rate mortgage, only, not allowing him to know all the details of the payback on it.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: When his father found out:

　　EDWARD “JIMMI” MELTON III: He tried to get them to modify it for over two years, and every time, it was the same answer, they couldn't work with him, they couldn't do it at this time, that kind of thing.

　　One day, he just finally had enough, after over two years of fighting, and about 4:15 in the morning, he took his life.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Jimmi Melton held onto the house for five-and-a-half years, fighting foreclosure. But it's finally been auctioned¹⁴ off. He will be out by April Fool's Day.

　　TANIA AGATHOS: You can transfer me to my point of contact, but they're not going pick up the phone, right?

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And then there's Tania Agathos, who wonders how much longer she can hang on to her home.

　　TANIA AGATHOS: December 24, Christmas Eve, I had a lovely knock on the door, and they served me with papers.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: On — on Christmas Eve?

　　TANIA AGATHOS: On Christmas Eve.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Agathos paid $69,000 for her townhouse in 2002, refinanced for $89,000 in 2004.

　　TANIA AGATHOS: I'm not living, as you can see, in the Taj Mahal.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: When the bottom fell out of Florida's housing market, she fell into a spiral of unemployment, divorce, a big surgery bill, even with insurance, and personal bankruptcy¹⁵. So, she's been asking her lenders to modify her mortgage for years now.

　　TANIA AGATHOS: They said that they wouldn't even discuss it with me until I was three months behind in my mortgage payments.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: You mean you had been paying?

　　TANIA AGATHOS: I had been paying. I was 100 percent up to date on everything.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: So they were essentially¹⁶ forcing you to stop paying?

　　TANIA AGATHOS: Correct.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Which you did, I take it?

　　TANIA AGATHOS: Oh, yes, I had no — I didn't have a choice anymore.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: By the time she technically¹⁷ qualified¹⁸, she was too deep in the hole to climb out, she says, as penalties and fees were tacked¹⁹ on to the principal and interest.

　　But, instead of modifying the loan, the lenders kept passing her from one case manager to another, while the tab steadily²⁰ grew.

　　Assessed expenses, $1,700, and then past due payments of now $32,000…

　　TANIA AGATHOS: Correct.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: … just to renew your mortgage payments, which then would come in monthly after that.

　　TANIA AGATHOS: Correct. I don't know if I'm going to have a lock on my door tomorrow when I come home from work.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: So, Agathos waits for the final stage of foreclosure.

　　Meanwhile, says Marc Joseph:

　　MARC JOSEPH: There is still a lot of what they called shadow inventory²¹ that nobody wants to talk about, it's not there. It's still there.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: The foreclosures that are going to happen, but haven't happened yet.

　　MARC JOSEPH: They're going to happen, because people did loan modifications²², which was only a Band-Aid on the problem. So guess who I'm out doing foreclosures on now? The people that did the loan modifications, and now they're being reset²³ back to their old payments.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And that's the shadow inventory that's out there and could flood the market?

　　MARC JOSEPH: This is a whole new wave of what I see coming.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: A wave of people like David, perhaps. Where has he been living since getting cash for his keys?

　　DAVID: I got a store. I got a place to walk the dogs.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: A truck stop.

　　DAVID: They got showers in here. Hopefully I don't get kicked out, but this is where I'm calling home right now. From a house to a truck, this is where I'm at.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: This is economics correspondent Paul Solman reporting for the PBS NewsHour from a truck stop in Fort Myers, Florida.

1 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

4 delinquent   

adj.犯法的，有过失的；n.违法者

参考例句：

• Most delinquent children have deprived backgrounds.多数少年犯都有未受教育的背景。
• He is delinquent in paying his rent.他拖欠房租。

5 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。

6 appraised   

v.估价( appraise的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；估量；评价

参考例句：

• The teacher appraised the pupil's drawing. 老师评价了那个学生的画。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He appraised the necklace at ￡1000. 据他估计，项链价值1000英镑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

8 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

9 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

10 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

11 millers   

n.（尤指面粉厂的）厂主( miller的名词复数 )；磨房主；碾磨工；铣工

参考例句：

• Millers and bakers sought low grain prices. 磨粉厂主和面包师寻求低廉的谷物价格。 来自辞典例句
• He told me he already been acquainted with the Millers. 他跟我说他同米勒一家已经很熟。 来自互联网

12 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

13 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。

14 auctioned   

v.拍卖( auction的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was sad to see all grandmother's lovely things being auctioned off. 眼看着祖母那些可爱的东西全都被拍卖掉，心里真不好受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

16 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

17 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

18 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

19 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

20 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

21 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

22 modifications   

n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变

参考例句：

• The engine was pulled apart for modifications and then reassembled. 发动机被拆开改型，然后再组装起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The original plan had undergone fairly extensive modifications. 原计划已经作了相当大的修改。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 reset   

v.重新安排，复位；n.重新放置；重放之物

参考例句：

• As soon as you arrive at your destination,step out of the aircraft and reset your wristwatch.你一到达目的地，就走出飞机并重新设置手表时间。
• He is recovering from an operation to reset his arm.他做了一个手臂复位手术，正在恢复。