Lesson 6 The Roof1That Costs Too Much

A problem for poorer Americans that most voters prefer to ignore

Motherhood and apple pie are still fine, but the thing many Americans relish most these days is owning their own home. Two in three homes are owned by their occupants, and the lowest mortgage rates in three decades keep the numbers rising. But this does not suit everybody.

There have long been cities, such as San Francisco and Boston, which lure in so many members of the ever-growing middle class that poorer people get priced out of the housing market.2Now the problem is national. According to a report by Harvard University, house prices have been jumping ahead of incomes3in most of America's big cities. Eight of the 50 biggest metropolitan areas have seen prices rise by nearly a third in real terms4since 1997. The national rate for mortgage foreclosures is at a 30-year high, with Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi and Utah to the fore.5

The Department of Housing and Urban Development6(HUD) defines “affordable housing”as a home which costs less than 30% of a family's income, in either rent or a monthly mortgage. When households pay more than 30% they tend to skimp on other necessities, such as health care. Janet Smith, a professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois, reckons that 38% of all the renters in the Chicago area—more than 180,000 households—are in this squeeze7. So are nearly a quarter of the area's home-owners. These are not just the familiar poor. A lot of teachers and nurses are struggling.

Some people blame the housing burden in part for other social ills8—everything from children doing badly at school to traffic-jammed roads. Unless the housing problem is addressed, claims Julia Stasch at the MacArthur Foundation, America will waste money on other social programmes.

No doubt the housing boom is unsustainable, and prices will eventually adjust themselves to incomes.9But that will take time. So affordable housing has become a political issue. Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston has championed it at the Conference of Mayors, which he currently heads (but his solution is apparently to bring back rent controls, which in the end is no solution). California's voters have just approved a $2.1 billion bond issue to subsidise the provision of cheaper homes.

Such schemes usually involve cities requisitioning land—often run-down areas where factories or public-housing developments once stood—and handing it over to housing associations or public trusts which, because they get the land cheap, can build homes and rent them out at below-market rates.10The trouble is that demand generally swamps supply11: in cities like Washington, DC, there have been complaints of Soviet-length waiting lists12. The obvious way to mop up some of the demand—more high-rise, high-density apartment blocks13—is opposed by people who own houses nearby; many neighborhoods have zoning laws14to prevent this.

Another problem is that few countries offer such generous tax breaks15to home-owners as America does. The Chicago area's population has increased by 11% since 1990, according to Ms Smith; but the number of rented homes has dropped by 3%. Jim Houlihan, the Cook County assessor, successfully pushed for lower taxes on rented property. Unfortunately, most of the city's new jobs are in its northern suburbs, which are protected by zoning laws; most of its cheaper housing is in the south. If people live a long way from their work, business suffers, the transport system creaks, and the environment (think of those car fumes) takes a beating.16

An organization called Metropolis 2020 estimates that the Chicago area will need another 352,000 homes by 2020. But many neighborhoods are suspicious of anything labelled “affordable housing”, often assuming that it means public housing (which they rightly or wrongly17associate with racial minorities, drugs, gangs and violence). It is true that cheap housing projects do tend to be built in poorer areas. One of the biggest in the country is a $1.6 billion scheme in Chicago: the city is knocking down some of its nastiest public-housing projects, including the notorious Cabrini Green. But the 25,000 new units it is building in their place are divided between public housing, subsidized homes and market-rate ones18.

Some people argue that the federal government should step in—by creating a National Housing Trust Fund19to help build cheaper homes; by altering the tax system; by making the Federal Housing Association20more efficient. But HUD's boss, Mel Martinez, has told the mayors that “the solution will not come out of Washington”. He wants the private sector and non-profit organizations to take the lead.

In the end, it may be true that the only answer is to allow the building, or renovation, of a lot more cheap housing. But many middle-class voters do not want that in their communities. “Most Americans don't think there's a housing problem, ” says Nicolas Retsinas of Harvard. Most homeowners are still happy with rising prices. Affluent baby-boomers21will probably ignore the problem until their children decide that it is cheaper to stay with mum and dad than pay a fortune for their own homes. And by then the property market will doubtless have crashed.22

From The Economist, December 7, 2002

I. New Words

champion [ˈtʃæmpiən] v. to support or defend vigorously

gang [gæŋ] n. a band of persons acting together for criminal purposes

metropolitan [ˌmetrəˈpɔlitən] adj. 大都市的

nonprofit [nɔnˈprɔfit] adj 非赢利的

notorious [nəuˈtɔːriəs] adj. famous for something bad

relish [ˈreliʃ] v. like or enjoy

requisition [ˌrekwiˈziʃən] v. to officially request or take

skimp [skimp] v. to be extremely sparing

subsidise [ˈsʌbsidaiz] v. to give money to pay part of the cost

II. Background Information

住房情况

美国人的住房大致分为三类：detached dwellings（独立式住房）; semi-detached dwellings（半独立式住房）; attached dwellings（附联式住房），公寓楼房（apartment buildings）是其主要类型。

据最新统计资料，美国已居住的住房单位（occupied housing units）1994年数量为9,470万。其中有64.7%的住户是房主，其他为租房户（tenants）。美国的房租主要根据面积大小、内部设施和坐落位置而定。设有厨房、浴室、储藏室，配有齐备的厨具。空调装置的两室一厅套房，一般月租金为400—800美元之间，有的地区甚至高于1,000美元。

许多美国人喜爱自己买房子住，他们认为这是一种合算的投资。美国房价上涨很快。1963年一套独立式住房平均售价为1.9万美元，1983年上升到9万美元，2007年又增加到31.36万美元。

由于购房耗资巨大，美国人购房筹资通常采取抵押贷款办法（mortgage）。买主通常是向银行贷款，只需先支付一部分（20%或更少）作为第一次付款，其余的以分期付款方式每月偿还本利，30年还清。一般情况下，抵押贷款每月偿还金比租金贵不了多少，因而这种方式颇受欢迎。美国人抵押贷款购房负债十分惊人，1990年全国这一项总额为37,640亿美元，1994年增至44,260亿美元。

近几十年来，美国人的住房情况有了很大改善。

1950年美国平均每个人只拥有1.5个房间，而到1981年已增加到接近2个房间。按照美国公认标准，如果住房每个房间所住人数超过1人，就被定为过分拥挤（over-occupied）。依据这一标准，1940年美国过分拥挤户为20.3%，而到1980年这种家庭已减少到4.2%。

虽然美国人的居住条件总的说来比其他国家优越，但还存在两大问题：（1）住房分配不均；（2）住房费用偏高。一方面，巨富们占有的是大庄园，住的是豪宅，住房大大超出实际需要，而另一方面又有不少人为住房而发愁。据统计美国有1,800万户低收入家庭存在严重住房问题，无家可归人数高达700万。

美国住房费用偏高，构成沉重的经济负担。从下表可以看出住房消费所占比重。

巨大住房开支对于收入较低家庭必然是难以承受的重负，无怪乎总有一些人无房可住流落街头。

III. Notes to the Text

1. roof —referring to a house (Note the author's use of synecdoche, the device of using a part to refer to the whole.)

2. There have long been cities, such as San Francisco and Boston, which lure in so many members of the ever-growing middle class that poorer people get priced out of the housing market.—长期以来，像旧金山和波士顿这样的城市，吸引了越来越多的中产阶级家庭前来定居，致使穷人因为房价上涨而被挤出购房市场。（get priced out of the housing market—to be driven out of the housing market by the high prices of houses）

3. house prices have been jumping ahead of incomes—house prices have been increasing faster than incomes

4. in real terms—calculated by taking inflation into consideration

5. The national rate for mortgage foreclosures is at a 30-year high, with Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi and Utah to the fore. —全国没收抵押财产比率创30年来的新高，其中印地安纳州、俄亥俄州、密西西比州和犹他州尤为突出。（①foreclosure—the act of taking back property that was bought with borrowed money because the money was not being paid back as formally agreed; ②to the fore—to be prominent）

6. The Department of Housing and Urban Development—（美国）住房和城市发展部

7. ...38% of all the renters in the Chicago area ... are in this squeeze—38% of all the renters in the Chicago area have to tighten the family budget (Here, “squeeze”refers to the act of skimping on other necessities in order to pay house rents.)

8. social ills—social problems

9. No doubt the housing boom is unsustainable, and prices will eventually adjust themselves to incomes.—当然房地产热不可能持续下去，价格最终会按人们的收入自我调节。（①housing boom—fast increase in house construction; ②unsustainable—unable to be continued in the present form）

10. Such schemes usually involve cities requisitioning land ... and handing it over to housing associations or public trusts which ... can build homes and rent them out at below-market rates.—开发这些项目通常要城市征集土地——常常曾是工厂或公共住房这类年久失修的地方——把土地交给住房协会或公共信托公司经营，由于他们得到的土地便宜，他们所建造的房子能够以低于市场价格出租。（run-down—in very bad condition）

11. demand swamps supply—供不应求

12. Soviet-length waiting lists—very long waiting lists

13. The obvious way to mop up some of the demand—more high-rise, high-density apartment blocks—解决部分人住房需求的一个明显办法是建造更多的高层高密度公寓楼。（①high-rise—tall building with many levels; ②block—a large building divided into separate parts; ③mop up—to meet the demand）

14. zoning law—a law on building restrictions in an area or a city, such as limits to the height of buildings

15. tax break—(AmE) a special reduction in taxs that government allows for a special purpose

16. If people live a long way from their work, business suffers, the transport system creaks, and the environment (think of those car fumes) takes a beating. —如果人们住得离单位很远，工作就会受到影响，交通增加压力，环境遭到破坏（想想那些汽车尾气）。（creak—to make a short, high-pitched sound; to be overburdened）

17. rightly or wrongly—且不问对还是错（used to say that whatever you think of someone's action, this is what they did）

18. public housing, subsidized homes and market-rate ones—公共住房、福利房和市价房（public housing—AmE. houses or apartments built by the U.S. government for poor people）

19. National Housing Trust Fund—国家住房信托基金

20. the Federal Housing Association—联邦住房协会

21. baby-boomers—Please refer to Page 29.

22. And by then the property market will doubtless have crashed.—到那时房地产市场肯定崩溃了。（property market—here referring to the housing market）

IV. Language Features

《经济学家》简介

《经济学家》（The Economist）周刊创刊于1843年9月，迄今已有160多年历史。该刊创刊人是英国的詹姆斯·威尔逊（James Wilson），现在它与《金融时报》（Financial Times）同属皮尔逊父子公司（S. Pearson & Son, Ltd）所有。

该刊在全世界的发行量是54万份，其中在英国国内只有不到10万份，而在美国的发行量却是22万份，是国内发行量的两倍多。

自创刊以来，《经济学家》始终保持自己的独特风格：注重数字、图表，强调新闻事实，看重理性分析。它很少刊登广告，这与广告充斥的其他新闻刊物形成了鲜明对照。

《经济学家》每期第三页是这期杂志文章的目录，主要有两大部分，一部分是世界政治和时事（World Politics and Current Affairs），下分：亚洲、美国、美洲、国际、欧洲、英国。另一大部分涉及企业、金融和科技。目录页还标出该期杂志的封面故事（Cover story）、重要文章（Leaders）、一周新闻概要（The world this week）、特别报道（Special report）、亚洲（Asia) 、美国（United States）、南北美洲（The Americas）、中东和非洲（Middle East and Africa）、欧洲（Europe）、英国（Britain）、商业（Business）、金融与经济（Finance and economics）、科学技术（Science and technology）。此外，还有读者来信（Letters）等。

《经济学家》清晰、简洁的写作风格独树一帜，西方杂志中很少有与其媲美者。它的文字精练，简明易懂，对于复杂的社会问题、世界重大事件，它能以浅显的语言、较短的篇幅、清楚的图表把来龙去脉、前因后果交代出来，条理自然，表达清晰，令人叹服。

美国新闻写作学家卡彭在《美联社写作指南》一书中高度赞赏《经济学家》的文笔：“英国《经济学家》深受称赞，虽然它所报道的是严肃题材，但他所用的文字却简洁明快，许多导语所含句子的平均长度只有16个词，文章大部分句子较短，平均在16—19个词之间。”（Rene J. Cappon, 1991:51）

《经济学家》的另一大特色是其英国式的幽默与辛辣讽刺。它对美国社会文化的报道、对其政治形势的评论常常夹杂一些讥讽，使得美国知识分子感到不是滋味。

《经济学家》在政治观点方面居于保守，对我国和第三世界国家的报道，焦距往往对准负面，常有敌意表现。

V. Analysis of Content

1. According to Janet Smith, families paying less than 30 percent of their income amount to___of all the renters in Chicago.

A. 38 percent

B. 72 percent

C. 62 percent

D. 80 percent

2. Housing associations or public trusts rent homes out at below-market rates because___.

A. their houses lack needed facilities

B. they can get the land cheap

C. their houses are in bad shape

D. their houses are located in inconvenient places

3. The author believes that the obvious way to mop up some of the house demand is to___.

A. build more high-rise, high-density apartment blocks.

B. build more houses in suburbs

C. renovate old houses in cities

D. lower taxes on rented property

4. From the article, we know that most of Chicago's new jobs are located___.

A. in the commercial center.

B. in the southern suburbs

C. in the northern suburbs

D. in the minority residential areas

5. When talking about the means by which the federal government should get involved in solving the housing problem, the author fails to mention:___.

A. making the FHA more efficient

B. altering the tax system

C. creating a National Housing Trust Fund

D. running job training programs

VI. Questions on the Article

1. How many homes are owned by occupants in America? What keep the numbers rising?

2. What kind of home is affordable housing in America?

3. In what ways is the housing problem associated with other social problems?

4. What prevents the construction of more high-rise, high-density apartment blocks?

5. Why are many neighbourhoods suspicious of affordable housing?

VII. Topics for Discussion

1. Is more affordable housing an ideal solation to the housing problem?

2. Should the U.S. government play a bigger role in solving the housing problem?