A、TRUE B、FALSE A

In recent years, there have been great social and economic changes in the United States. And, these changes have affected almost all of America’s housing system, from home building to home buying.
    First of all, American families are becoming smaller. People nowadays are having fewer children, or choosing not to have children at all. Many people are marrying later in life. And about 40% of all American marriages end in divorce.
    All this means that many Americans now want smaller houses. And a large percentage are buying apartments.
    This has created a shortage of rental housing in many parts of the country. It has caused special difficulties for those who are old or poor, and do not have the money to buy a place of their own.
    Some people are solving this problem by forming cooperatives. In a cooperative, everyone in an apartment building joins together and buys a share of the building. If 20% of those living in the cooperative have low earnings, then the group can get a low-interest loan from the government. If people want to sell their share in the cooperative, they can not earn more than they paid for it. This helps keep the cost of cooperatives low.
    Recent concern over the cost of energy also has brought changes in American housing. Some people are moving back to the cities, to save the cost of driving long distances to work. And, many Americans have begun to look for homes that cost almost nothing to heat, because the temperature of the earth changes very little as the season changes.
    Other new houses get their energy from the sun. During the day, heat from sunlight is collected through windows on the south side of the house. At night, the windows are covered, and the collected warmth heats the home.
    Recently, the American economy has also had a major effect on American housing. Inflation has pushed the cost of homes higher and higher. And, interest rates have become very high. Buyers now must pay as much as 18 percent interest for housing loans.
    Americans with just moderate earnings now find it very difficult to make monthly payments on a new home. In the last few months, even apartments have grown too expensive for most people to buy.
    These developments have brought about a crisis in America’s housing industry. Officials say that homes now are selling only half as fast as they do in a good year.
    Many home building companies are closing. And unemployment in that industry is now more than 16 percent much higher than in most other American industries.
    Officials in the housing industry have taken some steps to end this crisis. Banks are permitting people to make lower monthly payments when they move into new houses. Then they increase the payments at a later time.
    Some builders are helping buyers pay the high interest rates on their mortgages. Builders say they are not earning any money this way. But, they say at least they are surviving.
    Builders are also looking for ways to put together houses at a lower cost. One way is to build as much of the house as possible in a factory. Some houses—called mobile homesites are made completely in factories, then transported to the buyer.