美国国家公共电台 NPR--租个地方住越来越贵

Renting a place to live is getting a lot more expensive

Transcript¹

In many parts of the country, rents are up by hundreds of dollars a month — just in the past year. In some cities, the rents are up nearly 40%, according to a recent survey.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In many parts of the country, rents are up by hundreds of dollars a month just in the past year. That's according to a survey that tracks rental² listings across the biggest 50 U.S. cities. Here's NPR's Chris Arnold.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE³: Last year, Laura Kraft (ph) landed a job in Orlando, Fla. She had just gotten her Ph.D. in entomology, meaning she studies bugs⁴. And she'd be working on a big nature exhibit at a theme park, which sounded great. Then she started looking for an apartment.

LAURA KRAFT: I started looking at rent and was, like, not sure if I was going to take the job. Like, the rent was so high in Orlando, it really blew me away.

ARNOLD: First, she looked for a place of her own. But anything affordable⁵ had a waiting list at least six months long. So she found a Facebook group just for theme park employees looking for roommates so that they could afford a place to live.

KRAFT: My roommate and I together are paying $2,200. I know a lot of folks who work part-time at two different theme parks because that's the only way that they can make their bills. And instead of having just one roommate, a lot of people that I know have, like, three, four, sometimes five roommates in a house.

ARNOLD: The cost of renting a place in Orlando rose nearly 30% just last year alone. That's according to a survey by the real estate firm Redfin. Parts of Florida, New York and New Jersey⁶ are seeing particularly steep jumps in rent, too, as is Austin, Texas, with the biggest one-year gain of 40%. Redfin chief economist⁷ Daryl Fairweather says it's worth noting that these are new listings for apartments.

DARYL FAIRWEATHER: That doesn't literally⁸ mean that every person in Austin is going to see their rent go up 40%. But it means that if you are on the market right now, looking for an apartment or home to rent, the prices will be 40% higher than they were the year before.

ARNOLD: The story is a bit different from city to city. Fairweather says a lot of technology workers have been moving to Austin, so that's pushing up prices. In New York City, rents are rebounding⁹ after falling earlier in the pandemic. But she says rents are rising more than usual just about everywhere.

FAIRWEATHER: The root cause of the problem is a lack of supply. We have not built enough homes to meet demand.

ARNOLD: Redfin survey looks at the 50 largest U.S. cities. On average, rents there went up just 3% in 2020. It's about normal. Last year, though, rents were up 14%. Fairweather says one factor is that more millennials in their late 20s and early 30s feel like they're done with roommates or their parents' basement.

FAIRWEATHER: Millennials are the biggest generation. We're forming households. And we want a place of our own. And that is causing an increase in demand. We should have seen this coming and built for that demand. But we have had things preventing us from building more housing, like restrictive zoning.

ARNOLD: Especially in higher-cost parts of the country, zoning rules make it hard to build cheaper, smaller houses or apartments that are more tightly¹⁰ packed together. That's a big reason we do not have enough homes.

FAIRWEATHER: And it's really starting to bite us now that demand is starting to increase.

ARNOLD: Allison Best-VanLiew (ph) is feeling that bite all the way up in Buffalo¹¹, N.Y.

ALLISON BEST-VANLIEW: It's been a little while, to be honest.

ARNOLD: She and her husband have been renting a pretty cheap place there on a busy street for a few years. They pay $900 a month.

BEST-VANLIEW: We do not have a dishwasher (laughter), which is normally fine. But when you're thinking about trying to start a family and all of that - because with the bottles alone, like, you kind of need that.

ARNOLD: But as they've been looking around for a better place, she says, everything seems to be getting more expensive.

BEST-VANLIEW: Between 12 and 1,400 for a place relatively¹² close to this size with just a dishwasher.

ARNOLD: Like a lot of young couples, they'd rather buy a house. But with home prices hitting new records, they can't afford it. And with so many people in that situation, that itself keeps demand for rentals¹³ up and helps push rents even higher.

Chris Arnold, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELFFIRE'S "KALA")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

6 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

8 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。

9 rebounding   

蹦跳运动

参考例句：

• The strength of negative temperature concrete is tested with supersonic-rebounding method. 本文将超声回弹综合法用于负温混凝土强度检测。
• The fundamental of basketball includes shooting, passing and catching, rebounding, etc. 篮球运动中最基本的东西包括投篮，传接球，篮板球等。

10 tightly   

adv.紧紧地，坚固地，牢固地

参考例句：

• My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street.横穿马路时，孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
• The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe.人群挤在一起，我们几乎喘不过气来。

11 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

12 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

13 rentals   

n.租费，租金额( rental的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some large hotels, the income derived from this source actually exceeds income from room rentals. 有些大旅馆中，这方面的盈利实际上要超过出租客房的盈利。 来自辞典例句
• Clerk: Well, Canadian Gifts is on the lower level. It's across from Prime Time Video Rentals. 噢，礼品店在楼下，在黄金时刻录像出租屋的对面。 来自口语例句