Money
Reality Check
Dan Ryan started Frederick, Md.–based Dan Ryan Builders in 1990, so the recent downturn in the housing market was his first. During the boom that preceded it, Ryan says his company, like many others, “threw our mission statement to create the best value for buyers out the window and priced [our homes] to our competitors, which [were] much higher than we anticipated.” He also chose to ignore warnings of an inevitable softening in buyer demand from his father, Jim, who founded Ryland Homes. “He'd remind me every chance he got that a downturn was imminent,” recalls Ryan. “He was absolutely right; it's just that he'd been saying it for eight years.”
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