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Blackstone started making major investments in homes shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, when tantalising new opportunities emerged.
2008年金融危机后不久，诱人的新机会出现，黑石集团开始在住宅领域进行重大投资。
The cheap credit that rolled across the world in the years before the financial crisis had allowed people to momentarily live out a dream.
在金融危机爆发前的几年里，席卷全球的低息贷款让人们暂时实现了梦想。
In the US, they bought sprawling houses that they could no longer afford once the carousel stopped.
在美国，他们购置了一处又一处房产，一旦传送带停下来，他们就再也负担不起了。
In Spain, where Blackstone would also set its sights, the entire country got drunk on the GDP growth that flowed from its bloated construction sector.
在西班牙(黑石集团也将目光投向了这里)，整个国家都沉醉于饱和的建筑业带来的GDP增长中。
In both places, a real estate bubble was sustained by nothing more than an expectation that property prices would continue to rise.
在这两个地方，房地产泡沫仅仅是由房地产价格将继续上涨的预期支撑着。
When they started to fall, the results were catastrophic. But not for Blackstone.
当房价开始下跌时，结果是灾难性的。但对黑石集团来说并非如此。
Before 2008, major real estate investors had focused on the places where people worked or shopped.
2008年之前，房地产主要的投资者关注的是人们工作或购物的地方。
After the financial crisis, the industry started eyeing up the places where people lived.
金融危机后，房地产业界开始关注人们居住的地方。
In the US, as more and more people found themselves unable to pay their mortgages, thousands of houses became available at discounted prices.
在美国，越来越多的人发现自己无力支付抵押贷款，成千上万套住宅打折出售。
In spring 2012, Blackstone dispatched employees to hoover up such properties.
2012年春天，黑石集团派员工去大量收购这类房产。
It founded a subsidiary, Invitation Homes, to manage its new kingdom of houses, which spanned from Seattle to Atlanta.
为管理从西雅图到亚特兰大的全新的房屋王国，黑石集团成立了子公司Invitation Homes。
“We were very particular about the assets we were buying,” Alexandra Thur, a former equity partner who joined Invitation Homes before the company even had a name or email address, told me.
“我们对购置的资产非常挑剔，”前股权合伙人亚历山德拉·图尔告诉我。在Invitation Homes还没有名字、没有电子邮件地址前，她就加入了这家公司。
The firm looked for two-or three-bedroom houses in sunnier climes where an economic recovery seemed more likely.
该公司寻找阳光明媚地区的两居室或三居室的房子，那里似乎更可能迎来经济复苏。
It avoided struggling cities such as Detroit or Cleveland.
该公司避开了底特律或克利夫兰等陷入困境的城市。
Invitation Homes hired local agents who knew every detail about the neighbourhood, right down to whether a street had a “weird church” or a rundown shopping parade on it, Thur recalled.
图尔回忆说，Invitation Homes雇佣了当地的代理人，他们对附近的一切都很了解，甚至知道某条街上是否有一座“灵异教堂”或一排破旧的店铺。
Soon, the company was spending as much as $125m on houses every week.
很快，该公司每周购置房屋的支出高达1.25亿美元。
Not everyone was thrilled with their new landlord.
并不是每个人都对他们的新房东感到高兴。
Some people who lived in Invitation Homes’ properties told journalists that it had hiked rents, seemed to scrimp on maintenance costs and imposed punitive fees on tenants.
一些住着Invitation Homes房产的人告诉记者，这家公司大幅提高了租金，似乎在维护费用上很抠搜，而且对租户征收惩罚性费用。
