Building organizations are beginning to focus on an ethics “commandment” concerning development, and nothing could bring me more pleasure. That ethic means the reciprocal sharing of trust — the basic building block of all human relationships.

The Urban Land Institute has begun including this concept as a regular part of its semiannual national conferences, along with smart growth, which itself can be part of an expanding sensitivity towards ethics. One place this ethic can be demonstrated is in San Diego’s central core — Downtown — where expansion and prosperity energize the entire region. Beauty will continue to be in the eye of the beholder, but the basic value for the product is to benefit the renter or buyer of that space. Because San Diego is special, it can bring nobility to a professional builder.

The developer must have in mind to improve the living, working or shopping environment for the population, whether the product is new or renewed. The value that the builder must add is to benefit the community, no matter what the price or rental range.

In the past, real estate developers’ goals have been to buy land, get it financed, build it and market it. However, real estate itself is being redefined, and that is exciting. A growing view supports allowing the creativity of the builder to mesh with ethical values. This must result in enabling more people to profit by the actions of the builder. It begins with educating developers, buyers, the media and politicians so that ethical, purposeful planning rather replaces jumping into a marketplace that appears unendingly hot, which it never can be.

Inflation will continue in the real estate markets because of the absence of entitled land. Either a developer has land or must reuse existing land and buildings. It is that basic. Yet, when we know that we will continue to grow by tens of thousands of people and jobs each year, the result must be higher demand within a marketplace with a severe land shortage. That equals a seller’s market. The only answer is to increase the productivity of urban land.

Think of a manufacturer of a widget who has increasing demand but can’t find the materials to produce it. He can look globally, which might result in higher costs, but he will find his raw materials. Land, however, is not a widget. Land is always local.

That’s why office rents rise, industrial buildings inflate, apartment rents expand and home prices hit the stratosphere. That scenario ends when demand diminishes; when the Fed raises interest rates in clusters so that cumulatively they add a burden to both buyers and sellers; when jobs stop coming here because home prices have risen beyond the ability of employees to afford and they begin leaving and stop arriving; when lenders become selective in allowing more new construction; and if the stock market crashes.

What is happening is classic real estate inflation without the usual new construction of too much supply. Traditionally, when a market is hot, lenders can’t wait to make new loans to builders, investors jump into the fire and the result is saturation of marketplace. Now the only signs of over-construction are at the market’s high end. There simply is no low end. Affordability is not a market reality. We are short thousands of apartments and homes, and it will grow worse each year.

Consumers ask why builders don’t build more affordable units, assigning blame to them rather than to voters and neighborhood turf-protecting organizations that don’t allow new units to be built. They equate more homes with more traffic and congestion and less room for endangered species. Environmentalists and the 40 acres-per-home types protect the species, while humans try to find something, somewhere, they can afford.

Past government attempts at urban redevelopment resettled the poor while the affluent replaced them in new high rises. But here, our Centre City Development Corp. has proved the legitimacy of the concept by creating affordable housing. City planners, the county and Sandag are seeking ways to shelter the population. Where there’s a will and good communication, there will be a solution.

San Diego will have to search beyond its financial limitations, solve its traffic problems, create transportation options other than cars, use land more effectively and partner better with community organizations. San Diego builders will have to be better at considering possibilities in an ethical framework.

San Diego may enjoy Mother Nature’s climate and achieve high-tech prominence, but it seems remarkably dense in solving a housing crisis. And it is a crisis. Commercial and industrial rents will suffer as jobs begin leaving.

I have met no better than San Diego’s key city planner, Gail Goldberg, and those who assist her. Innovations and processes exist that can begin to solve the challenge of keeping present jobs, attracting new ones and welcoming the humans who wish to work and live here. The business community and universities must participate in this education of voters so that the boom doesn’t end in failed effort.

Sanford R. Goodkin is CEO of Sanford R. Goodkin & Associates, international real estate analysts. He can be reached by e-mail at sgoodkin@mil.net. His Web site is sgoodkin.com.