PBS高端访谈:房地产市场反弹?在一些地区仍不可能

 　　GWEN IFILL: But, first, years into the economic recovery, some homeowners are still struggling to hang on to their homes. The headlines tell of strong home sales in many major metropolitan¹ areas, even in cities where sales prices have been shooting skyward.

　　But there's another part of the housing story, the places and homeowners who have yet to recover, even as prices have remained low.

　　Economics correspondent Paul Solman has that report, part of our weekly series Making Sense, which airs every Thursday on the NewsHour.

　　DANTE ORTIZ: Go, go, go, go. You all right?

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Cheryl and Dante Ortiz are living proof that the housing crisis is still with us. When they bought their Southbridge, Massachusetts, home in 2004 for their large family, half of the kids adopted, they thought they'd found their slice of the American pie.

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: I got you. I got you. Come on.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: But six years later, it looked like they would lose it. Donte ruptured² a disk in his back at work and became disabled. Cheryl's grad school student loans came due. They fell behind on the house payments. But since the value of their house had plummeted³, and in their neighborhood had never recovered, even refinancing wasn't an option.

　　CHERYL ORTIZ, Homeowner: The mortgage company had no compassion⁴. They wanted to do nothing to help us, nothing. And I finally said to them, I don't know what you want me to do. I'm explaining to you my situation. You don't — it's like you don't care. And they said, well, it's your problem. Put the house up for sale.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Which they did, in what's known as a short sale, where the seller's asking price doesn't cover what's owed to the bank.

　　Now, what had you paid for it initially⁵?

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: Initially, $250,000.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And what were you short-selling it at?

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: They brought it down to as low as $149,000. And not one person came to look at it, no offers, nothing.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: After six months, they pulled the house off the market.

　　So, you mean there's been no housing rebound⁶ at all around here?

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: No, no, not here.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: But the news is that, nationally, housing prices are on the way back up.

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: Well, maybe somebody should show me where that is, because it hasn't happened here.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Elyse Cherry, who runs Boston Community Capital, a nonprofit lender that specializes in helping⁷ underwater homeowners, says this story is still a common place.

　　ELYSE CHERRY, CEO Boston Community Capital: This is the story of a crisis that won't quit, and it won't quit because we're not focused on the difference in how it impacts our lower-income neighbors, as opposed to our middle- and upper-middle-income neighbors. In low-income areas, the foreclosure crisis continues unabated.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Really? Unabated?

　　ELYSE CHERRY: Unabated.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: According to the research real estate firm Zillow, more than seven million borrowers remained underwater in June of 2015, over half of them by more than 20 percent, with homes in low-end neighborhoods more than three times as likely to be underwater.

　　And this tale of two markets is playing out across the greater Boston area. David Greenidge, a research data management specialist, paid $250,000 in 2006 for his house in the modest, but well-tended town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, then found it had soon lost about $100,000 in value. After being between jobs for several months, he too fell behind, tried to refinance, and got the run-around we have been reporting for years now.

　　DAVID GREENIDGE, Homeowner: They initially said, you know, let's try to do a modification⁸. OK, fine. I sent them the paperwork, like 60 some-odd pages, all our information. A month — about a month later, can you send us all the information to do the modification? OK. I sent it to them again and said, I just sent you this a month ago.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: OK, maybe the banks were overwhelmed by the volume of business, but like Greenidge, Cheryl Ortiz wondered, why wouldn't the banks make a deal with homeowners at something like market rates?

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: What do you think is going to happen to my house if you take it? What is that going to help you as the bank? You're going to lose more. But, no, I'm out, you know, got to go, you're out of the house, and we're going to give it to somebody else much cheaper.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Nic Retsinas, who teaches real estate at Harvard Business School, says the banks don't necessarily want to work things out.

　　NIC RETSINAS, Harvard Business School: Because the banks necessarily aren't holding these mortgages. They're often bundle-izing them and securitizing them and selling them to investors¹⁰. Investors are very nervous about losing any of their principal. They feel that's inviolate¹¹. As a result, they haven't done a principal reduction. As a result, you have these low values, particularly among low-end homes, continue to stilt¹² the marketplace.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: So the bank is simply afraid of setting a precedent¹³?

　　NIC RETSINAS: Yes, the banks think this will be contagious¹⁴, and then they will lose their investor⁹ base, who is very concerned about ever losing their principal.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: So, are you sympathetic to the lenders for not giving the homeowner the same deal that is actually a price on the open market?

　　NIC RETSINAS: No, I think the lenders have been short-sighted. And because they have been short-sighted, for the most part, this housing crisis has dragged on and on, and it explains why the recovery is so slow and so laborious¹⁵.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: This is where Elyse Cherry and Boston Community Capital come in. For the past six years, the organization's Stabilizing¹⁶ Urban Neighborhoods program has refinanced some $85 million in home loans for people in default and foreclosure.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: What you do is, you buy the home at the current market price, which is lower than the original one, and then sell it back to the owner.

　　ELYSE CHERRY: That's correct.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And that works?

　　ELYSE CHERRY: Yes. We provide a new 30-year fixed¹⁷ year mortgage. We have some bells and whistles attached to this to be sure that we really get good homeowners.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Boston Community Capital charges those homeowners a interest rate than the banks and shares in any appreciation¹⁸ of the home for as long as the loan stays in force. As a result, says Cherry:

　　ELYSE CHERRY: We encourage people to clean up their credit as quickly as possible, so that they can, in fact, go out and get perhaps a cheaper mortgage, take our mortgage out, and cut off any shared appreciation as early as they can.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Something the Ortizes are already making plans to do.

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: Now I'm in a position to say, OK, now I can start looking for — to refinance. And I'm not going to have somebody say, oh, you can't do that because you're so far underwater, you will — nobody is going to touch you.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: One of the bells and whistles that comes with the Community Capital mortgage is a biweekly payment regiment¹⁹, requiring borrowers to make 26 half-payments a year, two more than needed to cover their annual obligation.

　　The extra two goes into a fund…

　　DAVID GREENIDGE: Exactly.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: … as a cushion.

　　DAVID GREENIDGE: Exactly.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: Have you had the use the cushion?

　　DAVID GREENIDGE: No, but we may need to because our furnace is very old. When the repairman came, he noticed that we have some pipe issues. The plumber²⁰ said, don't touch it, so your finger might literally²¹ go through. I'm going to submit the estimate to fix that with Boston Community Capital.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: So, is a program like this the answer for a large part of the housing market that's still reeling? Elyse Cherry herself says no. For one thing, not everyone qualifies.

　　ELYSE CHERRY: You really have to have enough current income to support even a current-priced mortgage.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: And Nic Retsinas sees another limitation.

　　NIC RETSINAS: They don't really have the capacity to do this in large numbers sort of over time. They're doing it in selected markets. They're still running into hurdles²². They still need the cooperation of banks. So, yes, it's a great idea. It makes a lot of sense. Whether it can get to a scale to make a difference, I'm not so sure.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: But, for Cheryl Ortiz, at least, it's given her family room to breathe.

　　CHERYL ORTIZ: We have a good place to live. My kids have their friends. And, you know, we hope that, little by little, things turn around, but at least I can say I'm not afraid for tomorrow, because, you know, we can make — right now, we're making it. We're doing well.

　　PAUL SOLMAN: For the moment. And in the tale of two markets, that's more than millions of still-underwater homeowners can say.

　　From parts of the Boston area that still haven't recovered from the housing crisis, this is economics correspondent Paul Solman reporting for the PBS NewsHour.

1 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。

2 ruptured   

v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交

参考例句：

• They reported that the pipeline had ruptured. 他们报告说管道已经破裂了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wall through Berlin was finally ruptured, prefiguring the reunification of Germany. 柏林墙终于倒塌了，预示着德国的重新统一。 来自辞典例句

3 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 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。

9 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

10 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

11 inviolate   

adj.未亵渎的，未受侵犯的

参考例句：

• The constitution proclaims that public property shall be inviolate.宪法宣告公共财产不可侵犯。
• They considered themselves inviolate from attack.他们认为自己是不可侵犯的。

12 stilt   

n.高跷，支柱

参考例句：

• They inhabit reed huts built on stilts above the water.他们住在建于水中木桩之上的芦苇草屋里。
• Thatch hut is raised high above the paddy field on stilt.茅草屋用柱高高地建在稻田之上。

13 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

14 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

15 laborious   

adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅

参考例句：

• They had the laborious task of cutting down the huge tree.他们接受了伐大树的艰苦工作。
• Ants and bees are laborious insects.蚂蚁与蜜蜂是勤劳的昆虫。

16 stabilizing   

n.稳定化处理[退火]v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The disulfide bridges might then be viewed primarily as stabilizing components. 二硫桥可以被看作是初级的稳定因素。 来自辞典例句
• These stabilizing design changes are usually not desirable for steady-state operation. 这些增加稳定性的设计改变通常不太符合稳态工作的要求。 来自辞典例句

17 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

18 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

19 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

20 plumber   

n.(装修水管的)管子工

参考例句：

• Have you asked the plumber to come and look at the leaking pipe?你叫管道工来检查漏水的管子了吗？
• The plumber screwed up the tap by means of a spanner.管子工用板手把龙头旋紧。

21 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

22 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句