Here's the brass tacks on my project. I plan to do the development work, so there's no cost of an office, staff, project management fees, etc. - I don't have any of the crazy overhead these guys are talking about. But then again, I'm only trying to turn a half acre into 9 nice condos/rowhomes.

Land/Development/Demolition of structures/Utilities/Driveway: 800,000

Permits/Misc. Fees: 100,000

Construction: 2,000,000 (hopefully only 1.7 or 1.8m, but you gotta have contingency)

You know what the mortgage payment on 2.9m is? it's $16,579 - and that's only PI. Can't forget about insurance and taxes. My PITI on this project would be in the neighborhood of $20,000. Spread that number over 9 units and you get what? Yah... raise your hand if you can afford $2200 for RENT (pro-tip: $2200 could pay the mortgage on about $450k at 3%). and that's for my project to break even. If I ever have a vacancy... well, I better adjust the rent up to $2400 so I am building up some buffer...

Now don't get me wrong - these are nice, 3 bedroom, 2 car garage, good looking condos...

But forget about the families I know who struggle to even scrape up $800 for rent.

And forget about the fact that the city just threw up an obstacle that made my engineer crap his pants.

And so... back to the drawing board I go....