Would there be a reason that rent is higher in proportion to the sale price? 

Because you can barely keep a used car on the road for less then 150 a month so an extra 100 dollar bill might be worth the dependability and warranty you get on say a smaller compact car for commuting.I just worry about all the if's in life that happen when you borrow money if pmts have to be made by you and not a tenant.

We can have a little of that here in ORegon if a builder built on non compacted fill.. but nothing like what happens there were you just have gods dirt moving on you... :)  Flood insurance is a joke these days... one year its out the next year they redraw the maps.. frustrating.

I would spen a little on soil test to see if you have good compactible dirt.

Be sure that the specie you choose doesn't grow to enormous proportions.

I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone and I'm inclined to believe the same holds true for many other industries, whatever the variance in proportion those are.

given the worsening drought in the west it seems that the water bill is becoming a larger proportion of the monthly expenses and i thought billing the tenants for their use might encourage conservation and limit the need to increase rents.  

Ok, something more in proportion to the "deadly hazard of STR's" and the 1 death per week....

Developers prefer to build/sell high end of course, and thus will offer proportionally less lower end units. 

Have a business emergency fund that is proportioned to your portfolio3.