For builders today, stuck between historically high mortgage rates and persistently elevated asking prices, the slowdown in new-home sales feels more like a stall.

For some builders, the stall has them in a bind. They’re saddled with lots financed or taken down under rosier economic assumptions — locations that no longer pencil. Focus is 100% on moving ready-to-own homes or started homes that have progressed to drywall or beyond by whatever means — concession, incentive, free upgrade or option, any price-related tool in the toolbox – to get that inventory turned and record the delivery.

Meanwhile, the prospect of repositioning to better-located, better-costed lots remains locked behind a wall of entitlement, impact fees, infrastructure inflation, and political resistance.

But some with more optionality and the agility to seize on it see an opening in today's tough sledding, an opportunity to pivot product, location, and price and reignite profitable sales sooner rather than later. If you can build in the right place—on better-located, better-priced lots—you can reset the math of your offerings and grow share while others sit tight.

What stops most builders from getting access to those better-located lots? A chronic and often invisible bottleneck is the high cost and complexity of public infrastructure and local fee burdens between entitled dirt and finished, shovel-ready lots.

The solution may lie in something many builders are only starting to study seriously: the kind of capital-savvy planning that developers and capital advisors like Launch Development Finance Advisors apply to the economics of community-scale development.

In a 3,000-acre master-planned community in the western Phoenix MSA, Launch helped a developer knock over $20 million out of upfront infrastructure costs, increase bonding capacity by over $100 million, and cut lot-specific fee burdens by $18,822 per home.

Here’s how they did it.

Begin With the End in Mind

The first question we ask our client is: What is your project vision? Where do you want to go?” says Carter Froelich, Principal at Launch. “Then we ask the return factor question. Are you IRR-driven or nominal-dollar-driven? You can only pick one, because it drives how we structure the financing.”

From there, Launch dives into an audit model it calls its Project DOS: Dangers, Opportunities, and Strengths. That becomes the blueprint for working through city entitlements, negotiating off-site obligations, and building the capital stack.

How to Cut $20 Million Without Cutting Corners

This Phoenix-area project originally came with a hefty oversizing requirement. The city requested the developer build water and sewer infrastructure with enough capacity to accommodate future off-site users.

We were able to eliminate that oversizing request,” Froelich says. “Our client only had to build what they needed for their project.”

Even more, Launch structured the development agreement so any excess capacity became the sole property of the developer, capacity that they could sell back to the city or other users.

This eliminated more than $20 million in unnecessary upfront infrastructure costs.

Modified Agreements, Real Savings

Launch reviewed and renegotiated those terms because the property already had an older Community Facilities District (CFD) structure in place.

We amended the development agreement, opted out of the impact fee program, and increased the bond election by $250 million,” Froelich explains.

Using Market-Driven Bond Sizing™ and Competitive Tax Rate Analysis™, Launch showed that raising the CFD ad valorem tax rate from $3.00 to $4.90 per $100 of assessed value would not impair new homes' pricing or sales pace. That single adjustment unlocked over $100 million in added bonding capacity.

And by opting out of local fire, water, and wastewater impact fees, the project shaved $18,822 off the per-lot cost borne by builders.

Shifting City Staff From Skepticism to Support

Even with favorable economics, developers still need political support. Froelich says Launch used its Fiscal Impact Maximizer™ to model how much the project would contribute to the city’s general fund.

That included impact fees, construction sales taxes, property taxes, shared state revenues, you name it,” he says. “It gave the city council the cover they needed to approve the modified agreements.”

Tools, Not Promises

The biggest obstacle, Froelich says, wasn’t anti-growth sentiment or political posturing. It was skepticism among staff.

City staff were wary of letting go of some control over the CFD. But because of our client’s national track record, and because we showed our math, they got comfortable. We walked them through every number with sources and backup. Our assumptions weren’t questioned.”

Don’t Wait for Demand—Build a More Profitable Lot Now

This is the punchline that resonates most with The Builder’s Daily audience:

Because we could fund backbone infrastructure through the CFD,” Froelich says, “we were able to get out from under the water, sewer, and fire fees. That made our lots less expensive and more competitive now, when it matters.”

With many builders sitting on higher-priced lots and hesitating to start new homes, projects offering a better land basis may hold the key to market-share gains even in a slower demand cycle. Builders who can recalibrate product and price on smartly capitalized lots have a chance to outperform.

Smart Capital Strategy = New Path to Profit

Builders don’t have to wait for lower interest rates or national home price resets. If they can source better land positions—made viable through RED Analysis™, Launch Sequence™, and other financial engineering tools—they can “build through the doldrums” while competitors stay sidelined.

As Froelich puts it:

Every battle is won before it’s fought. Do your homework. Support your requests with facts, not opinions.”