There are real advantages to being early, and two specific risks that are entirely knowable before you sign.
Being early usually means better lot selection and, often, lower pricing than later phases — builders tend to raise prices as a community establishes itself and demand proves out.
What you accept in exchange is living in a construction site. For the first years there will be trucks, mud, noise beginning early, and unfinished streets. Amenities are promised rather than present: the school may be years away, the shops longer, and neither is guaranteed on any particular timeline.
This is the single most common regret in new communities. A home backing an open field is sold, implicitly or explicitly, as though the field is permanent. It usually is not — it is the next phase.
Before you pay a premium for a view or a lot backing open space, find out what is actually planned for that land. This is knowable: the community's approved plan shows future phases, and the City's planning information shows land use and applications. If the answer is "we are not sure", treat the view as temporary and do not pay a premium for it.
Ask the sales representative directly: what is going behind this house, and when? Then verify it independently. A good answer is specific. A vague one is an answer too.
The same applies to future arterials and connector roads. A quiet crescent today can sit beside a busy road in five years, and the plans for that exist now. Check the alignment of planned roads relative to the specific lot — not the community generally — before committing.
Over a long enough hold, generally yes — today's established communities were all new once. The complication is the medium term. While a builder is still selling new homes in your community, you are competing with brand-new inventory, incentives and show homes when you try to resell. That is a difficult comparison for a three-year-old house to win.
Which is why new construction rewards patience. If you may need to sell within a few years, an established community usually gives you a cleaner exit. If you plan to stay ten years, the calculus changes entirely.