Opportunities For Those With Money

Via the Housing Bubble Blog, a story from Stockton:

Huber said the current "very rough down cycle" has been difficult for builders, but it also creates an opportunity for long-term investment.

"You can buy today for substantially less than what it would cost you to develop," he said.

For example, it typically costs between $40,000 and $50,000 to develop a Stockton lot with the infrastructure - curbs, gutters, utilities and so on - needed to get ready to build, Huber said. And that doesn't count the cost of the land itself.

In the past few weeks, though, ready-to-build "finished" lots have been sold for between $5,000 and $7,500 each, he said.

That's as little as 10 cents on the dollar from those who bought and developed land while the boom was on but found themselves hurting in the bust and forced to sell.