This happened across the street from my parents. Interesting enough, they didn't bring in any dirt to raise the land, so it still pools water when it rains a lot... and the parish/state doesn't mow the grass.
Low lying areas catch water that would be pushed elsewhere if the lot was filled.
There are programs where local governments are given grants to remove flood prone structures from the either by buy outs or elevation. FEMA usually kicks in and there's matching money from god knows where. In some areas of Houston they bought out low lying houses and built retention systems. One of the houses had gone from 1950 to like 1998 and never flooded. From 1998 to 2008 it flooded 5 times.