Thinking of getting into the development game?

Manifest Density

John O'Sullvan wrote in 1845 that it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent ... for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." A journalist covering Texas' bumpy annexation to the union, he coined a term sorely in need of an update; it is density that appears manifest in the context of development today.

GIANTS Steer toward Beauty and the Beach

Featured Major Market: Los Angeles If you don't build it, they will come anyway. If you are dealing with government agencies or citizens groups who believe that if they don't build the housing, people won't come, take them on a tour of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the "poster child" for how a lack of adequate new housing near employment centers can affect an economy.

Lennar takes it all

With Orange County known as a land-limited area for building, the auction of the four-parcel property of El Toro — a famous Marine Air Station — has been a big deal for builders because of its implications on land development. Sold during an online auction held by the Defense Department, the final bid came in at $649.

Nominate a Landscape Architect

April is National Landscape Architecture month — a fitting time to draw attention to the importance of home builders to the American Society of Landscape Architects, and a new opportunity involving the professional society's annual awards program. According to ASLA's latest Business Indicators Survey, residential projects comprise 40 percent of annual billable hours by landscape architect...

Subsidizing Sprawl?

The Michigan Land Use Institute's Follow The Money report blasts decades of "profoundly misguided" state policies in Michigan that amount to "subsidizing sprawl" while fostering obesity and white flight from neglected cities. If research bears these claims out, then suburban builders could suffer when infrastructure expansion fails to keep pace with market demand.

Hidden Within the Valley

Because of its tight housing market, finding available land in Ventura County is a rarity. However, builder/developer Vintage Communities purchased 290 acres of land as an improved tentative tract map in 1999, now known as Hidden Valley Estates. Vintage swept up this available land because it's close to Thousand Oaks, CA, yet rural in its feel.

Beautiful Density

The builder is New Urban Communities, a niche specialist in both density and infill. Principals Kevin Rickard and Tim Hernandez are well acquainted with both profit and peril in their specialty. Dedicated New Urbanists, they loathe front-loading garages, but Old Palm Grove is half front-loaded because, they say, flexibility is the first prerequisite to high-density success.

Market Economics

Las Vegas may soon look like Manhattan, with condo skyscrapers rising up out of the flat desert. The question is, can traditional single-family home builders make a living in a town like this? That's not an idle inquiry — because Las Vegas may not be so different from other housing markets across the country, perhaps just a few years ahead.

Eagle Clips Land Flipper

When you're walking a land parcel before acquisition, don't forget to look up...and remember the story of one land owner who moved a little too fast for his own good in an attempt to capitalize on Southwest Florida's red-hot land market. Last year, Mark A. Borinsky, 39, of North Port, Fla., sold a parcel for two and a half times his original investment of $59,000.