Termites have about half eaten up the French Quarter, and the swarms down there are awful. I have never seen a swarm in my suburban neighborhood, though, which is mostly 40-year-old slab houses.
When I bought my house, there was a specific line in the disclosure form for whether or not the house had a termite contract. I would not have bought the house without a termite contract in place, and most of the houses I looked at had that box checked as did mine.
Actually it turned out that the sellers had checked that box in error and did not have a termite contract, so they had to get one pronto. They had the holes drilled in the driveway and such, and my house had a termite contract by closing.
The reason I am going into this is that the termite contract involves inspections every 6 months, to keep the contract current. Each inspection was $95 (some companies charge more) and only involved someone walking around the perimeter of the house. But a current contract is almost a prerequisite if the house is ever to be sold.
I kept my contract current until my termite company was under 12 feet of water with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then, there was nobody to do the inspections or anything else. In 2007 the company sent out a letter to all their former contracts, saying they could finally start servicing them again. I didn't respond, but will need to set up another contract before selling. It has been 8 years since the driveway drilling and treatment, so I will probably have to have that done again and I understand this is not cheap. (groan)