If a house is "worth less" than it used to be that indicates its value has gone down but not necessarily that it has lost all value, or in other words has become "worthless."
Pull out the space to make two words into a single term and it shifts the meaning from a mere reduction to dropping all the way to the lowest possible point.
That any of us understands English is truly marvelous, and that understanding undoubtedly stems from the fact we don't analyze these nuances but merely accept them without question.
Funny how a space can change the meaning.
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