# The last-in first-out rule of real estate land

**Published by:** [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/)
**Published on:** 2026-07-16
**URL:** https://brandondonnelly.com/the-last-in-first-out-rule-of-real-estate-land

## Content

During development downturns, at least two things tend to be true. One, land on the periphery tends to get hit first and recover last. It's a kind of "last in, first out" principle. During a market expansion, core areas become expensive first, and then demand "spills over" to the periphery in search of opportunity. These areas are, therefore, last (or later) to appreciate and first to fall when the market turns. This also means that they're last to rebound when the market recovers because, generally speaking, demand will start in the core and then move outward. And two, execution becomes critical. If you don't get your product offering right and execute well, you can't rely on the tide of the market to carry you. We're seeing exactly this today. It is, as we talk about on this blog, extremely difficult to make new projects work in the current market environment, and so few developers are launching and breaking ground, and many projects are getting cancelled. But it's worth pointing out that there are still some projects moving forward, and that's because they got their product offering right and they executed well. And maybe they leveraged public grants or incentives to help tip the scales of feasibility. Cover photo by Ali Köse

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