A sharp housing market downturn has builders retooling plans to build hundreds of more homes across the East Valley. At least two local builders have already postponed plans for major subdivisions, as they wait for the market to bounce back.Scottsdale-based developer Montalbano Homes said Wednesday it has pushed back plans to build 1,800 homes in the Queen Creek area. The builder had originally hoped to start work on its Copperton Trail development — which will cover roughly 640 acres, or 1 square mile, of land — in fall 2007. Now, the project’s been pushed back to summer 2008.

Montalbano still has 55 homes to sell in its 112-home Skyline Ranch Estates in Queen Creek, said Jon Baer, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. Many builders are taking a hard look at how their current projects are selling before they go out and build new ones, Baer said.

"There’s enough competition out there as it is," he said.

Another Scottsdale developer also backed out of plans for a 155-home project recently. Cachet Homes let escrow expire on 88 acres of land — this time in Chandler — where it had planned to build. Read more about that project here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.