A whole genre of films - such as American Beauty and Twin Peaks just to cite two cult classics – have unveiled the moral ambiguities – and at times the darkness – that lurk behind the bucolic and idyllic façade of American Suburbia. The pretty and prototypical image of such suburbian lifestyle is the seven-bedroom and four-bathroom McMansion with a driveway where three gas-guzzling SUVs are parked (one for dad, one for mom and one for the kids) and a sprawling green lawn that is perfectly manicured with sprinklers spewing hundreds of gallons of water a day.

Thanks to the worst housing recession since the Great Depression, sky-high gasoline and energy prices and rising water shortages from global warming this suburbian American dream way of life is turning into an economic and financial nightmare. Let us count the ways of this nightmare…