REAL ESTATE : Builders Looking Beyond O.C. for New Business

Paper Chase: Webb, who recently moved to A-M from the presidency of Kaufman and Broad Homes’ southeast regional operation in Anaheim, said he has been spending most of his time chasing money.

That, of course, is the home builders’ lament these days. Because federal regulators have told banks and savings and loan associations that all real estate loans are to be treated alike, residential builders complain that they are being lumped in with commercial developers, who are primarily responsible for the major real estate losses at the nation’s banks and thrifts.

And with the Southland awash in vacant commercial real estate, lenders are running away from developers with deals to pitch.

The lack of financing for land acquisition and development deals was a topic that cropped up repeatedly in seminars at the recent Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco.

And it crops up in most meetings and conversations with builders in Orange County these days.

In a recent interview, Bob Albertson, president of Presley of Southern California and chairman of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County’s HomeAid program, said he believes that the financing crisis will have tremendous repercussions on consumers in coming years.

The lack of funds will artificially constrain the supply of new housing, he said.

And in a demand-driven market like Orange County, where the number of new homes built each year already is controlled by growth limitations and zoning restrictions, further lack of supply can only force prices up and up and up, he said.