voa新闻翻译：经济报道-帮助次级贷款人：太少还是太多？

ECONOMICS REPORT - Helping Subprime Borrowers: Too Little? Too Much?

Thu, 13 Dec 2007

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

经济报道－帮助次级贷款人：太少还是太多？

2007年12月13日，星期四。

这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。

Imagine that you want to buy a house but are not sure you could meet the monthly payments. Your credit history is considered subprime -- not good enough for the lowest interest rates available.

But a broker who finds lenders for homebuyers offers you a deal. A loan with payments low enough to fit your budget. After two or three years, however, your payments will go up, possibly thirty percent or more. Do you accept?

想像一下：你想购买房子，但不知道是否能够保证月供。你的信贷被评为次级，即不太好，无法享受最低利息。

但是，经纪人为购房者找到了贷款方，向你提出一个交易方案――适合你财务预算的、低还款金额的借贷。但是，在二年或三年之后，还款将上升，也许是30%或以上。你是否接受？

In the United States, an estimated two million subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are expected to reset higher in the next two years. These loans make up about seven percent of all mortgages. But now many of the owners are in danger of losing their homes because of rising payments.

Last week, President Bush announced a plan to help some people with subprime loan troubles. Treasury Secretary brought together a new private alliance called HOPE NOW. He and other government officials met with lenders, loan servicers, investors and others to work out terms of the plan.

在美国，估计有二百万次级、费率可调抵押，在未来二年内需要重新上调。这些贷款占所有抵押的大约7%。但是，许多房主因还款上升而有可能失去房子。

上周，布什总统宣布了一项计划，以帮助有次级贷款麻烦的人。亨利. 鲍尔森财长提出了一项新的、称为“希望”的私有联盟。他和其它政府官员与贷款方、贷款服务方、投资方及其它人见面，以便确定该计划的条款。

The goal is to help families keep their homes -- and help avoid further injury to the already

weak housing market. Lenders generally do not want to be in the business of selling houses reclaimed through foreclosure.

The White House says as many as one million two hundred thousand homeowners could receive assistance under the plan. They could be helped in one of three ways, depending on their situation.

其目的是帮助家庭保住房子，并希望避免对业已疲弱的房产市场带来更大的伤害。贷款方通常不希望通过没收并出售房子而回收（贷款）。

白宫说，多达120万房主可根据此计划接收援助。根据他们的实际，可采用三种援助方法的一种。

One way is by refinancing an existing loan into a new private mortgage. Another is by moving their mortgage into a loan secured by the Federal Housing Administration. And the third way is by freezing their current interest rate for five years.

The plan is only for loans that were started between January of two thousand five and July of this year and that have not reset already. Borrowers must be living in the home and facing a payment increase of ten percent or more.

一种方法是以现有贷款进行重新融资，变换为一项新的私有抵押。另一种方法是将其抵押转换为联邦房产管理局担保的贷款。另外，第三种方法是将其现行利率冻结5年。

该计划仅适用于从2005年1月－今年7月并且尚未重新设定利率的贷款。贷款人必须居住在房子内，并且面临上调10%或以上的还款。

Democrats in Congress say the plan does not do enough to protect homeowners. Yet some critics say it does too much, helping people who borrowed more than they should have.

Not only that, subprime loans were sold to investors worldwide as mortgage-related securities. Some investors could go to court to try to stop the loans from being renegotiated. But with the current troubles in the housing and credit markets, they may have to settle for whatever they can get.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

国会的民主党说，这一计划不足以保护房主。但是，批评者说，帮助贷款过度的人，（帮助）过头了。

不仅如此，次级贷款还以抵押相关的证券向全球的投资者出售。某些投资者可上法庭，阻止贷款重新调整。但是，鉴于房产与信贷市场的麻烦，他们也许不得不接受任何所能获得的价

值。

这是由Mario Ritter编写的、VOA特别英语的经济报道。我是Steve Ember。