It’s getting harder and harder for the builders to be ahead of the curve.

Example: Robertson Ranch in Carlsbad. The eastern half of the master plan is currently being graded and will soon be developed with 469 units. This is after approximately 6 years of work securing the entitlements to build. So I’d say that 6 years ago it was pretty hard to tell where we’d be today.

Now obviously within the last year, the developer could have chose to not grade and sit tight, however, they have an awful lot of money into the project already and if they sat too long, they’d have to return to the City for time extensions.

In the case of Robertson Ranch, if the land was purchased 6+ years ago, I imagine that the developer will still make money on the project. They’ll just have to price accordingly and obvisously won’t have the profit margins like they did during the boom.