Southwest Virginia is saddened

Southwest Virginia has changed so much. What used to be a rural area is, it seems, moving to some sort of suburbia. I am saddened and frustrated by this change. An area that used to be full of beautiful farmland is now full of houses, stores, and partially filled developments. (What is called "Exit 7" was once a beautiful farm and is now Lowes, WalMart, and Sam's Club and doesn't even resemble what it once was.) Developers and out-of-towners are the only ones able to afford the land and now we have house farms and bloated property values. Out-of-towners want the conviences of city life but the "idea" of living in the country so now we are ending up with some kind of sprawling suburbia....minus the city.
But why has this area become this way? I can't blame people for wanting to move here...it is one of the most beautiful areas in the country(IMO). I cannot tell you where people are finding the work and especially how they are finding the work to support the standard of living they are living.
The only reason for this sad change is people are moving here from areas in which they were able to make their fortune, buying or building houses, and raising the price of living for the everyone. The last 5 years or so the price of real estate has become, well, unreal. (Jeff and I hard a terrible time finding something we could afford but were lucky enough to find a fairly priced home from church members.)
Now , I dare say, locals cannot even afford housing here. The most one can do is buy a half acre and put a trailer on it. (The fall in housing prices has not seemed to reach this area yet.) This reminds me of Isaiah 5:8 which says,

"Woe to those who join house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!.

Commentators tell us this stems from the greed of the wealthy buying up the land so that the poor no longer had a place to live. This was a warning of the judgement on such excesses. How many homes here can you go and see no other homes or "dwell alone"?
But to make matters worse, zoning is pretty non-existent here. One can build a half million dollar home next to a trailer and bring the property tax up so that the trailer owner can no longer afford to live there.
I am so saddened by what this area has become...even to the point of shedding some tears over it. Land prices are so inflated it can only be sold to outsiders. Outsiders build 100,000 to 800,000 houses that look like they belong in northern Virginia. The locals could never afford to buy such a house if it was to come up for sale so then more outsiders move in looking for that city in the country.
What saddens me the most is the intrinsic value of land seems to be no longer. Land is most always seen as potential money. Farms are not kept in agriculture because farmers see how much they can make selling it to a developer. A developer sees farmland as dollar signs in his eyes. Outsiders see "cheap" homes and flock here. I know change is inevitable...but it doesnt make it any easier for me that I the place I call home is becoming a place I would have never chosen to live. Southwest Virginia land is no longer a true agriculture area. Farmland is lost. I am sad.