A changing landscape.

Large metropolitan areas are already seeing a migration, partially due to a new trend which allows people to have the same conveniences of city life, while living in more rural areas. The internet is making commuting less necessary, and shopping more convenient, even from distant locations. This trend is likely to continue for some time. Some experts expect a huge drop in urban property values to result. Just when you thought it couldn’t get much worse, there is another round of difficulties flying in to sting the already smarting beleaguered industry.

Public health and environmental concerns.

This time, it is a human health and environmental problem. The most recent, and immediate being one that is showing up in many places in California, and now hitting suburbia across the land. Foreclosed homes especially those with swimming pools, Koi ponds and other water features have to be maintained, or mosquitoes take over. The maintenance of such features can be expensive in terms of dollars and cents, but not maintaining them can be expensive in terms of human life.

Some areas have ordinances requiring the foreclosing entities to carry on such maintenance, but unfortunately, it is not always done. This leaves city and county health officials to deal with the mosquito problems which often turn into public health problems due to West Nile Virus and Malaria to name only a couple. This also translates into a fiscal problem, because someone has to pay for these services, even in areas where the crunch has caused a dwindling tax base, and that is us!

Rodents and insects.

Overgrown lawns, back lots, and other properties where brush and weeds are allowed to grow unchecked because of lack of funds to maintain them, will produce similar problems with rodents, insects and and a host of other undesirables. This stretches out of the urban and suburban areas, and into rural America. Properties have to be kept up, otherwise health problems will ensue, and the proprietors of such properties could find themselves with little of any value left to sell.