⚠ Safety Is Only an Edge in a ScareLow threat

Financial strength as a selling point is worth most exactly when it is needed least useful to the seller — in a downturn — and worth least in the booms when Dom would most like to press its advantage. When credit is easy and confidence is high, buyers stop worrying about a developer's solvency and shop purely on price, location, and design, and every capable rival looks safe enough. In those stretches Dom's fortress balance sheet earns it no premium at all, while more aggressive, more leveraged competitors can out-build and out-bid it by accepting risks Dom prudently declines. Conservatism protects the company across the cycle but caps its upside in the good years — the market prices the trait at roughly eleven times earnings, no premium attached¹ — and a permanently under-levered balance sheet is, in pure return terms, a cost as well as a comfort.