[Raptor235]

Five years ago, my family purchased a ranch house in the country. There were no houses across the road, and at night, visibility beyond our front porch was zero. We were thrilled, having moved from the second-busiest street in our town, and loved to watch the night sky come alive.

Fast-forward to present day. There is now a subdivision directly across the road, each house built grander than the last, and three more very impressive houses all in a row next to it. Of course, all of these mailboxes went into our yard, since it’s a rural area, and our property value increased, but that’s beside the point, and definitely not why we moved to the country. Where did this new housing boom come from, and what is it doing to our environment?

Was it really so long ago that we lived in a world in which families squeezed into ranch houses, kids shared bedrooms and didn’t think anything about it (other than squabbles over cleaning and décor) and new homes were rare and usually part of a huge subdivision in which they all looked alike? Now it seems as though kids are building houses right out of college — even high school. “Old” houses on the market sit empty, while new homes go up faster and faster and sell for unbelievably high prices.

You can find the entire article here http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/alterna...-a-green-house