I have a friend that owns one of the most respected engineering firms that does land planning/subdivisions for the major developers. I asked him whether the shortage of land was real or not. He said that with all the unusable land due to habitat, zoning regulations, dedicated open space and topography that there is very little land left for large subdivisions. Most of what will and can be built is already entitled and within a decade or so we will be left with nothing more than small to medium sized infill neighborhoods.

I respect him and no reason to doubt his comments. Based upon them, I believe there is a real shortage of buildable land.