Wow – I guess if you are in the building business – especially as a small developer, you probably have taken all your profits and plowed them back into more projects.

This is merely anecdotal, but a townhome builder I spoke with in the N.Va/D.C. area ~2006 seemed more level-headed.
He said that his cost per home was about $300-400k, and he was getting more than $700k per. According to him, he could take a fair haircut in prices and still profit, as long as land prices remained sub-sonic, which they were.
Like the smart RE people I know, he seemed aware of the risks and had prepared for leaner times–isn’t there an Aesop fable like this?