Neighborbood update and credit scores

Just doing my check I do every month or so on our credit score via CreditKarma and our property value via Zillow. I've checked our credit scores 3 times since mid July. DH went up from 691 to 693. Mine Has gone up from 677 to 692. Getting close to 700! Our property value continues to decline since the beginning of September. Between June 1st and Sept 1st it steadily increased almost $8k. Since Sept 1st it has decreased to below $1k what it was on June 1st.  Not good news.

I also noticed on Zillow that the piece of property for sale, kitty corner behind our good neighbor has drastically dropped in asking price. The lady was initially asking $75K. She had a pending sale, but it fell through. Apparently because most of the 1.25 acres is unusable wet/swamp land. We are up on higher ground, so no issues with that, but as you go farther and farther behind our property it gets worse and worse. Now, I see the asking price is $45k. She'll probably be lucky to get that. In looking at other acreage in the area, you can get that same size in much nicer, non-drug dealer infested neighborhoods for the same price.

Our junkyard neighbor wants to buy it (even the realtor trying to sell it told my DH that when he called to let them know someone was on the property cutting trees down). But, I really don't see that happening. Thank God - he already owns 2 pieces of property that us and our other good neighbor are sandwiched between - we don't need another junk yard added to the neighborhood. And I don't see him coming up with the money to buy the property......the electric company showed up last week and turned their power off and sealed off the meter! It appears to be back on now, but how much do you have to be behind to get to that point? Plus his other dump he rents down at the end of the street - when the new tenants moved in the husband told DH he tried to call the power company to see about getting the billing in his name and was told no, it had to be left in the property owner's name because he owed $2000, so obviously, he's way delinquent on both his properties power bills.

I have a feeling most of the issues we are dealing with regarding this neighbor are going to implode on him soon. He's already been told by the county he can no longer operate a firewood business in a residentially zoned neighborhood. They also have to remove all the stacks of firewood, which his meth addicted 36 yr old son is gradually doing. But he spends most of his time sitting inside an open ended container getting high......along with the wife of the renters from the other property. And for some reason a drug dealer who used to always hang out at another place back behind us has moved in with these new renters, apparently living in a shed they all just built (with no permit). Probably because he supplies the wife with her drugs. The husband has now lost his job, so the annoyance of him driving a semi truck in and out of our private street is no longer an issue. They'll probably be gone soon, as they won't be able to pay junkyard/slum lord property owner rent, especially as the wife seems to spend it all on drugs.

We can't sell, as our property values are too low to get out of it, but we are now considering renting this place out to get out of here. We could actually rent a very nice house in a nice neighborhood for less than we are paying in mortgage here (mortgage high because we have that home equity loan we took out, when we thought DH was still going to be able to work), so even if we can't get in rent what we pay in mortgage here, we might come out close, with renting or buying another place less than we are paying now. Guess we'll wait and see over the next 6 months or so what is still going on. Junkyard owner's drug addicted son will most likely end up in jail again soon as his drug use appears to be escalating - it's his regular pattern with his life, and as he is causing most of the problems, that issue would be gone. I also see the renters as short term. The place is a dump and not even livable, really. Slumlord's ex daughter in law (who used to live there but finally got herself out of the mess) said that legally only junkyard/slumlord is allowed to live there, it is not up to code for renting. If someone wants to live there, I guess that is up to them, as long as they are quiet neighbors not causing problems, but these people are not. Their 3 teenage kids and the drug dealer that moved in walk and drive up and down our quiet little private road 24/hrs a day.....going down to the corner to meet their drug buyers or going to see drug addict on the other property. One of our security cameras points out toward our gate/street area and you should see how many times someone is walking up and down at 2...3...4am. Our motion light on our shop goes off constantly.

Meanwhile, we keep trying to make our little rectangle in this area as nice as possible. Those little privacy trees we planted around us can't grow fast enough!