New development good news or bad?

I have a few single family homes as rentals in Vancouver, WA. I was recenty notified that someone is going to develop the 2.3 acres around the corner into 25 single family town houses. My homes are only 4 years old and the rest of the neighborhood is fairly new too.

Would you consider this a good or bad thing for property values for those of us who currently own in the neighborhood? I’m a fairly new investor and would love to get your seasoned opinions.

Thanks a million!!

Howdy Archer:

I would be more interested in days on market and total inventory of unsold houses. Just development activity is not enough to judge a market. Several years ago in Austin every one was building and building and there seemed to be no wrong thing to build just like the stock market days of 20% appreciation. All of a sudden there was a 2 year supply of high end unsold homes. The builders and bankers are bullish but what about the home buyers. Bankers get paid to make loans and builders get paid to build and if a homeowner can get a raise at work he may be able to buy a new home.