-Unlike San Diego, those areas of Riverside County (Temecula, French Valley etc.) have tens of thousands of planned homes/homes in progress. Builders should be willing to deal for some time to come. In San Diego, however, I would worry that the lack of new SFR being build will eventually lead to builders less willing to deal because they just wont have the excess inventory. Make sense? For this reason, I wouldn’t feel pressured to buy right away.
-Try to negotiate items other than purchase price. You should still try to get the best price you can, but try to be creative. Builders will be reluctant to lower prices, but more willing to throw in options, offer to pay your mortgage for a year etc.