Japan Is Giving Away 8 Million Abandoned Houses www.travelandleisure.com

If you are a prospective homebuyer who is struggling to gather up the money for a downpayment or to be approved for a mortgage, you may want to consider moving to Japan. To keep good homes from going to waste, Japan is starting a program to reduce the number of abandoned homes across the country by offering them up for free, or selling them for next to nothing. Perhaps surprisingly, there are tons of abandoned and empty houses on the outskirts of Japan's major cities — eight million of them according to a 2013 government report.