it might be for tax reasons. i know where my house is in the Poconos, the taxes on an unimproved lot are peanuts. i was told by friends that own a few lots, like to either side of their home, that making them one parcel, will make the entire parcel "improved" vs, (1) 1/2 acre lot with a house, and (2) unimproved lots. A friend of mine has been collecting the land surrounding his home for quite some time now, most of them he got for nothing at the delinquent tax sales. He lives at the end of a short col de sac, and has aqquired most of the land on the street. we call it "Rays Way". i have no idea what the street is actually called.