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  3. The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits whi

The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits whi

游客2025-04-23  25
问题     The housing market has been for two years propping up consumers’ spirits while the rest of the economy lies exhausted on the floor, still trying to struggle to its feet. According to the National Association of Realtors, the national median existing-home price ended the year at $ 164, 000, up 7.1 percent from 2001. That’s the strongest annual increase since 1980.
    Although residential real estate activity makes up less than 8% of total U. S. GDP, a housing market like this one can make the difference between positive and negative growth. Most significantly, consumer spending is 66% of GDP, and the purchase of a new home tends to have an "umbrella effect" on the homeowner’s spending as he has to stock it with a washer/dryer, a new big-screen TV, and maybe a swing set for the yard.
    The main factor in housing’s continued strength is a classic economic example of zero-sum boom: the persistent weakness everywhere else. As the 2003 recovery continues to be more forecast than reality. Falling stock prices raised investor appeal for U. S. Treasury Bonds, which in turn, allowed most interest rates to drift even lower. But there are not many signs that there’s a bubble ready to burst.
    December’s new record in housing starts, for example, was nicely matched by the new record in new home sales. If you build it, they will buy and even if an economic pickup starts to reduce housing’s relative attractiveness, there’s no reason why modest economic growth and improved consumer mood can’t help sustaining housing’s strength. "The momentum gained from low mortgage interest rates will carry strong home sales into 2003, with an improving economy offsetting modestly higher mortgage interest rates as the year progresses," said David Lereah, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.
    Just as housing has taken up much of the economic slack for the past two years, both as a comforting investment for fretting consumers and a driver of consumer spending itself, a big bump elsewhere in the economy in 2003 could be housing’s downfall. If stocks roar back this spring, capital inflows could steal from the bond market, pushing up long-term interest rates. or Alan Greenspan and the Fed could do the same to short-term rates, as a way to hit the brakes on a recovery that is heating up too fast. In other words, if everything possible goes wrong for housing, homeowners should have plenty to compensate them in terms of job security and income hikes. [br] By the expression "zero-sum boom" (Paragraph 3), the writer means______
选项 A、housing’s continued strength and the persistent weakness may cancel each other out.
B、there are signs that improved consumer mood fails to help sustain housing’s strength.
C、stock price’ negative growth will ultimately offset housing market’s positive strength.
D、higher mortgage interest rates are compatible with the recovery of the economy.
答案 A
解析 题干问：“提到这个表达‘zero-sum boom’，作者的意思是……”。正确选项为A“房产持续的力量以及持续性的经济薄弱可能相互抵消”，此题需综合第3自然段和第4自然段的内容。而选项B“有迹象表明消费者改善了的情绪没能保持房产市场的强劲势头”不是作者所要表达的意思。选项C“股票的负增长最终会抵消房产的正增长”，这是文章信息的编撰。选项D“更高的抵押贷款利率和经济复苏是一致的”，这和文章的信息是相反的。
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