Beijing's traffic may now be the worst in the world, but natives have long known the capital's streets aren't as hard to navigate as its housing.
北京的交通可能是世界上最糟糕的，但北京人长期以来就知道，北京的街道还不像北京的楼市那样难以对付。
A study recently released by Beijing University of Technology and the Social Science Academic Press put a number on the frustration: 25. The average Beijing home sells at an extraordinary 25 times the average annual wage.
北京工业大学和社科院文献出版社最近公布的研究报告让一个数字倍受关注：25。北京住宅的平均售价是人均年收入的25倍，真让人惊讶。
The international level is much lower. An average apartment in Berlin, for example, only costs residents three times the annual average wage, according to a People's Daily article. Chicago has an average annual wage of about $70,000, and homes that sell for a median price of roughly $290,000. That's just over 4 to 1.
而国际水平要低得多。《人民日报》一篇文章举了一个例子，柏林一套普通公寓仅是居民人均年收入的三倍。芝加哥人均年收入约为70,000美元，房屋售价中值约为290,000美元，比例仅约为4比1。
Housing troubles are not new to fast-growing Beijing, but there was a great deal of hope that the government's moves in April to cool down the property market would provide some relief.
住房问题对于快速发展的北京已不再是新鲜事了，政府4月出台了给地产市场降温的举措，人们对其缓解楼市问题寄予了厚望。
According to the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, 98% of Beijingers said in May that housing prices were high. The other 2%, apparently, could not be reached at their homes for comment.
根据北京统计局的数据，5月有98%的北京人说，房价太高了，其余2%显然是因家中无人接听电话而没有就此事发表评论。
June brought the first signs of a reversal for urban housing nationwide, when prices finally began to fall, dipping 0.1%. The hope is that the cooling's full effects will appear in the months ahead.
6月全国出现了城市楼市走势反转的最新迹象，当月房价终于开始下跌，环比降0.1%，人们的希望在于给楼市降温的全部效应将在未来几个月出现。 |