After 2008, I read a story about the first (and only) person to buy a home in a half-built neighborhood. He was fully moved in before the crash. There were abandoned construction sites and empty home there when the developer went bankrupt. He mowed the yards all around him to keep the wildlife away from his home. He was in despair, understanding he could not sell him home to anyone. I assume someone acquired the neighborhood a few years later and completed the project, but it must have been 5 years before any developer started resuming construction at a minimum.

That's a possible outcome, and was a common sight back in '08.

Another outcome is the banks take back the properties en masse (happened in the early '80s during the last inflation scare, and also in '08) and slowly sell off the properties to investors in REO[0] auctions.

0 - REO or "real estate owned" is what banks call properties they've foreclosed on and taken ownership of. They generally want to get these properties off their books as quickly as possible and in the past have been willing to sell them at or below their cost basis.