I've been wanting this for a long time too. While I don't seem to have as many houses/buildings, it really is a hassle going around to collect from them. Even doing the left-to-right thing, I still get some houses blocked by money/xp and have to do some extra taps or go on to other buildings if I'm impatient. that and the time it takes to visit neighbors were main reasons I started to lose interest in the game but at least EA added new and interesting quests/features to do.
I wish EA would provide more incentive for continuing the game once your town reaches a certain size and/or you've been consistently at the max level for each update. I know there was another thread with some ideas for the social aspect, since this forum is more social than the game itself. For all the time I've spent and diligently gone through the quests, I wish EA would reward donuts or worthwhile premium items. I've been saving up since the Christmas update and still can't afford the observatory. it's pathetic. of course it didn't help that I'd accidentally spent donuts while collecting money from buildings, and didn't realize they'd finally given players the option to enable donut spending confirmation. also really lame that that wasn't set as the default option.