米国競売の風景

At Foreclosure Auction, Houses Sell, in a Frenzy


NYTが、ニューヨークJacob K. Javits Convention Centerでの競売の様子を伝えています。日曜日にあったんですな。 競馬の実況のようなオークショナーのアナウンスがあってから、次々に落札されてゆくわけですが、

Some 1,400 people were there, a crowd twice as large as the one last year, when the California-based Real Estate Disposition Corporation held its first foreclosure auction in the city, in a conference room at a Midtown hotel. But there were not nearly as many foreclosed houses then as there are now, said the corporation’s chairman, Robert Friedman.

1400人。スゴイ人数ですね。参加者の数です。コンサートホール、そうですね、中ホールの収容人数がこれくらいです。人数も物件も増えて行っているんですね。

The economy is much more severe these days,” Mr. Friedman added. “We’re seeing more foreclosures than any other time in the 19 years we’ve been in business, and we have auctions almost every day all across the country, sometimes more than one auction a day.”

ここ19年で一番多い、とか。

The audience was roughly divided into three categories. There were experienced bidders, many of them investors who have made careers of buying, fixing up and selling foreclosed homes for below-market prices — and quick profits. There were the novices, who looked at once lost and awestruck, their eyes darting between the booklet listing the houses that were up for grabs and the screens that showcased them as the bidding went on. Finally, there were the curious, like Ashley Durham and her fiancé, Darnell Smith, who plan to marry in May.

オークション参加者にも、プロ級、初心者、ひやかしの3種類ある。

Outside the Javits Center, some 20 protesters — among them labor leaders, antiwar activists and someone from City Councilman Charles Barron’s office in Brooklyn — were critical of both the auction and the billions of dollars the federal government has devoted to bailing out financial institutions. One protester held a sign that read: “R.E.D.C. made $3 billion last year by auctioning off working people’s homes. Bail out the people — not the corporate predators.”

センターの外には20人ほどの運動家がプラカードを掲げながら反対を主張。

日本でも、競売でやすい物件を買って儲けようとか、一時話題になったりもしましたが、アメリカではちょっと規模から何から桁違いって感じですな。