Progress?

I found this bucolic looking ranch at the very edge of a new neighborhood on the northeast side of town. Looks pretty cool, doesn't it? It'd be kind of nice to have all this open space right next to your neighborhood. But when you take a step back, you see this:

Obviously, it has been sold to the highest bidder. Which means that soon, this grassy prairie will look exactly like this:

Yet more beige tract homes. Is this progress?