This is one in a series of occasional stories on how the struggling economy is affecting us.

If you're seeking ground zero of the real estate collapse, go no farther than Laguna Ridge.

Four years ago, this 1,900-acre swath – characterized as Elk Grove's "crown jewel" – was master-planned for 7,767 homes. Roads, utilities, parks, and a new high school are all in place. But the downturn hit so hard and so fast that only 310 houses have been sold so far.

Thousands of phantom houses lend a surreal air to Laguna Ridge, a vast quadrant of the busy intersection of Elk Grove Boulevard and Bruceville Road.

Perfect residential streets with shiny nameplates wind through fields of waist-high grass. There are many speed bumps – but no cars. On Winkle Court, near a row of pristine model homes, the one sign of life is a jack rabbit streaking across the road.

No child plays at Constellation Park, despite tempting climbing structures, green grass and bright red picnic tables. The little park is encircled by a chain link rent-a-fence.

Two blocks away, 15 occupied houses on Collie Way stand isolated on the lonely frontier of Laguna Ridge. Among these pioneers are Chris and Jene Claude and their two kids, 7-year-old Aidan and Alexis, 5.

The Claudes say: If you're seeking a sweet home and a great deal, go no farther than Laguna Ridge.

"Right now, it is a little sparse around here," conceded Chris Claude, 28, on one bright morning last week. "But that makes the neighbors closer. It's like Mayberry – everybody knows everybody. We work together and keep an eye out for each other's kids."

His wife smiled and nodded. "We moved in last March, and within the first week, we knew everyone on Collie Way," said Jene (jen-NAY) Claude, 29.

The Claudes came to Elk Grove from San Antonio, where Chris was in medical rehab. A U.S. Marine, he lost a leg in Iraq on Feb. 20, 2006.

Ready to build a new life, the Claudes knew they wanted a one-story home with an open floor plan and excellent schools nearby.

So – with virtually the world to choose from as they scoured the Web for a house to buy – they homed in on the Daybreak model of the Amberleigh subdivision of the Laguna Ridge development of the city of Elk Grove.

Their house, 2,300 square feet with four bedrooms and two full baths, cost them $400,000 – probably about $125,000 less than they would have paid at the market's peak.

"I love Elk Grove," Jene Claude said. "It's like a small town – but it's big. I don't think I've ever met a rude person in Elk Grove. It's really family oriented."

Her own extended family – aunts, uncles and grandparents – lives nearby.

The Claudes aren't worried about the paucity of neighbors in Laguna Ridge – they will come, they say. But they are irked by one facet of living in a 1,900-acre vacant lot.

"The only thing that really bugs us is the fence around that park!" the young mother said. "It wasn't so bad when it was just an overgrown patch – but now it's finished and the kids can't get in."

Constellation Park is closed because it has not been officially turned over to the city by the developers. It's just one more detail for the consortium of landowners who already have sunk $80 million into infrastructure at Laguna Ridge (which they've dubbed "Madeira" to differentiate it from various other Lagunas in Elk Grove).

Real estate attorney John Hodgson represents developers who control about 90 percent of Laguna Ridge. Hodgson says no single factor is to blame for the stalled development – but he wishes the city of Elk Grove had moved faster in the planning process.

"The bottom line is that this project got approved in 2004 when the market was at its pinnacle," Hodgson said. "Real estate is cyclical. With the delays of the city both before and after adoption of the plan, the fact is that this development missed the cycle. And the infrastructure investment was huge – the city required us to do it upfront and in advance."

Plans for Laguna Ridge were already under way in 2000, when Elk Grove incorporated, according to Jessica Shalamunec, the city's planning manager. The new city took over the project from Sacramento County.

"The City Council's desires were different from the county's, so basically the developers had to go back to the drawing board," Shalamunec said. "The council wanted offices and other commercial, additional parks and more open space – the very features that make it the crown jewel it is today."

As for the real estate cycle moving from boom to bust, that's obviously beyond the city's control, she said. Also: "Keep in mind – this was a development project, not a city project. They build at their own pace."

Well, yes and no. Elk Grove did require the infrastructure to be finished first, pushing housing construction back. The city also set a cap of 1,200 new houses per year – a sad joke, as it turned out.

So far, the city has issued only 397 building permits, 240 of them for a Del Webb subdivision for the plus-55 crowd on one corner of Laguna Ridge. The bulk of the city's crown jewel is jack rabbit habitat.

"It breaks my heart," said Kathryn Boyce, a Northern California real estate analyst for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. "Laguna Ridge would be perfect – a shining star. But the market crashed so quickly and deeply that it didn't happen."

Still, Boyce is a believer in real estate cycles. She sees pioneers like the Claude family as simply ahead of the curve.

"If they just bought, they got a great deal and they're in on the ground floor," she said. "The housing market will come back with a roar. At Laguna Ridge, all the infrastructure is in place and you'll see a ton of houses all opening at once. It's poised to come back like wildfire."

So check back in a couple years. Laguna Ridge may be ground zero of the great real estate explosion of 2010.

Call The Bee's Dorothy Korber, (916) 321-1061.