Rural Romanian Housing Degradation – Effect of Land Restitution and Unemployment Rates

This paper aims to present the alarming situation of a constantly decaying rural built environment as well as its landscape. Even if rural settlement were and still are being abandoned in the entire world it is worrying that depopulation combined with aged communities represents one of the main reasons for this situation to occur in the 21st century in Romania.We have identified some of the elements that compose the foundation for this continuous decline and we are presenting with the aid of this study the major ones. It is obvious that education, form all points of view is the most important pawn, its absence leading to lack of overall vision, bad management of estates and possessions, unemployment, poverty and consequently decay.It is important to put a stop to this situation otherwise the gap between urban and rural settlements will continue to enlarge in terms of quality of life and the village will lose its cultural identity and value and will become a refuge for poor and unadapted individuals if not a ghost village.