Economic times are hard for a lot of people. This does not often bleed over into the digital worlds of massive multiplayer online games like Lord of the Rings Online. Sure money is almost always a highly-desired commodity, with people regularly selling (and buying) huge sums of in-game currency with their real-world equivalent, but the cost of not having that in-game currency is simply the inability to buy extras. If a player runs out of gold/gil/whatever their characters do not starve, they do not have to put off doctor visits, and they do not become homeless.
Except now they do.
Homes in Lord of the Rings Online lock out their owner if the rent becomes derelict, but the home remains in their name, waiting patiently for them to repay the missed rent. Those locked homes will not wait forever, not anymore. Player homes more than 180 days overdue on rent are being 60 days of notice to get current on their rent before they are cleaned out and placed back onto the market. Player possessions stored in these homes will not be lost and will await pickup indefinitely in escrow.
The given reason behind the change is the difficulty many players have in finding homes near their friends, and the large number of homes of players who are either inactive or simply not bothering to pay their rent.
