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The key phrase here.
This is happening all over the Central Valley. Supply is outstripping demand. Quite different from a housing slowdown.
Ping
Two good rules of thumb, vis-a-vis real estate, as sorta-kinda relates to this story:
1. Buy with the intention of keeping it forever. Land is the one thing that no one is making any more of. As a finite quantity, it will rarely lose it's value (unless it was once a toxic waste dump or Mother Nature covers it with 30' of water). Inherent in this idea is that when contemplating a buy, you do your homework; location, relative values between nearby communities, tax rates, insurance rates, must always be taken into consideration before you buy anything.
2. If you can't unload it, rent or lease it out (if at all possible or feasible), for at least the monthly mortgage payment. Make sure your leasing/rental contract is as ironclad as you can make it, and if you require a caretaker (like a local real estate agent), ensure they have the best possible reputation, and read the fine print on anything they give you to sign. Even if you aren't living in it, a home still represents a real asset, a source of potential income, and almost-unlimited credit (to ONLY be used in an extreme emergency).
Just my $0.02, FWIW.
The fatal error - but that's exactly the fear-mongering BS line that the industry been polluting the airwaves with for years. Does a car dealer dare try to tell you "it's now or never?" LOL!
NEVER enter into a pyramid scheme just as it is collapsing!
You take out an ARM, they take off a leg!