Missed Lift-Off of Homebuilder Stocks? Jim Grant Suggests These Related Laggards

You know the old argument for buying land: They’re not making any more of it. The twin credit and housing crises sent land prices plummeting, and the share prices of developers like Tejon Ranch (TRC) and Amrep (AXR) plunged with them. Both stocks are trading well below the peaks reached near the top in housing. The declines have been so dreadful, in fact, that even the SPDR S&P Homebuilders exchange-traded fund (XHB) has comfortably outperformed the two landowners.