US Economy: Home Foreclosures, Late Payments Rise

US Economy: Home Foreclosures, Late Payments Rise
New report on troubled housing market adds to worries in a week when oil sets all-time records. Transcript of radio broadcast:
07 March 2008

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

More bad news for the American housing market:

The Mortgage Bankers Association says housing repossessions are at their highest rates ever, led by California and Florida. And loan payments at least thirty days late are at their highest since nineteen eighty-five.

Problems in the housing market represent the greatest risks to the economy.

Central bank chief Ben Bernanke says helping the economy is now more important than fighting inflation. He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that conditions are more difficult now than they were in two thousand one. That was the last year in which the American economy was in a recession.

Most economists define a recession as at least six months of economic shrinkage. The economy was still growing at last report, but very little: just six-tenths of one percent from October to December. That was down from almost five percent for the July-to-September period.


President Bush says the economy is in a slowdown and that he does not expect a recession. But investor Warren Buffett, just listed by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, gave his opinion Monday. "By any common sense definition we are in a recession," he said on CNBC television.
Economic weakness has pulled down the value of the dollar. One euro is now worth about a dollar and a half, a record high. A weak dollar reduces the price of American exports. But it means higher prices for oil, which is traded in dollars.

This week, oil broke the all-time record of one hundred three dollars and seventy-six cents a barrel. That price, adjusted for inflation, was set in nineteen eighty.

The United States is the biggest buyer of oil. On Wednesday, OPEC refused the second American request this year to produce more oil. It said there is already plenty. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said high prices were the result of "mismanagement" in the United States economy.

Falling prices in the housing market are feeding a credit crisis. Home prices fell ten percent nationally in two thousand seven. And experts say prices could fall another ten to fifteen percent this year.

The Bush administration has been urging lenders to negotiate new terms for loans held by people in danger of losing their homes.

Many people now owe more than their homes are worth. Some are simply walking away from their homes, even though that damages their credit records.

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

----------------------------Google Translate

美国经济：首页foreclosures ，迟缴崛起
新的报告对困扰房地产市场增添忧虑，在一个星期的时候，油套都创造了新纪录。全文电台广播：
2008年3月7日

这是美国之音特别英语经济学报告。

更坏的消息，美国的房屋市场：

美国抵押贷款银行协会表示，房屋repossessions正处于最高利率以往任何时候都带领下加利福尼亚州和佛罗里达州。贷款金额至少三十天下旬正处于以来的最高水平1985年。

问题，在住房市场上最大的经济的风险。

中央银行首席贝南克说，帮助美国经济正更为重要打击通货膨胀。他告诉参议院银行委员会上周表示，情况较困难，现在比他们在2000之一。这是过去一年中，美国经济正处于衰退之中。

大多数经济学家界定经济衰退，因为至少在6个月的经济收缩。美国经济仍在增长，在上一次报告中，但很少：只有6成一个百分点，从10月至12月。这是从近5个百分点，为7月至9月期间。


布什总统说，经济正处于放缓和说，他并不期望衰退。但投资者巴菲特，刚刚上市的，由福布斯杂志评为世界上最富有的人，给他的意见周一。 "透过任何普通意义上的定义，我们现在正处于经济衰退时，他说： "对CNBC电视台。
经济疲软已拉低了美元的贬值。一欧元，目前其市值约为1美元的一个半月，创历史新高。美元疲弱降低了价格，美国的出口。但它意味着较高的价格购买石油，这是买卖的美元。

这个星期，石油，打破了所有有史以来最高记录的103美元和76美分，报收。物价通货膨胀因素调整后，定在1980年。

美国是最大的买家，石油。上周三，欧佩克拒绝第二个要求，美国这一年的时间来生产更多的石油。它说，目前已有很多。该组织的石油出口国说，高油价是因"管理不善" ，在美国的经济体系。

物价下跌，在住房市场正在吃饭的信用危机。住房价格下跌10 ％ ，在全国2000七名。和专家们说，价格可以再降10至15个百分点。

布什政府一直在敦促放款，以新的条款的谈判贷款持有人的危险，失去自己的家园。

现在很多人归功于超过自己的家园，是值得的。有的干脆步行离开自己的家园，即使损害自己的信用记录。

这也是该美国之音特别英语经济学报告，写马里奥里特尔。我史蒂夫Ember公司。