-
The latest construction jobs data crunched by the Associated General Contractors of America this week paints the classic good news, bad news scenario. Construction employment either increased or stayed steady in a growing number of metropolitan areas across the country--120 of 337--between November...
-
Continuing the expansion of its brand into the Pacific Northwest, PulteGroup has spent roughly $58 million to buy a mix of finished lots and raw land at several Seattle locations. PulteGroup recently closed on 900 lots from the Murray Franklyn Family of Companies, a developer in the Northwest...
-
Home prices continued their post-tax-credit swoon in October, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday. The 10-City Composite Index was up only 0.2% and the 20-City Composite fell 0.8% from their levels in October 2009, with the former down 1.2% sequentially and the...
-
Sales of new single-family homes came back from the second-worst month in recent history in November, posting a 5.5% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000, according to estimates released jointly Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development...
-
Hovnanian Enterprises CEO Ara Hovnanian characterized his company's performance in fiscal 2010 as "bouncing along the bottom" during an earning's call with analysts Wednesday. The company managed to end the year in the black, bringing in $2.6 million, or $0.03 per share, thanks to a sizeable tax...
-
Uneven home sales plagued the New Jersey-based builder throughout 2010.
-
Sales of existing homes of all types rose 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million in November, reversing a downward trend that began when the federal home-buyer tax credit expired in June, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Single-family sales were up 6.7%.
-
Hovnanian Enterprises, Red Bank, N.J. (NYSE:HOV) on Tuesday after market close reported a net loss of $132.1 million (-$1.68 per share) for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with a net loss of $250.8 million (-$3.21 per share) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Analysts were...
-
The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators shot up by 1.1% in November, the fifth straight month of increase and a sign that the economy has begun to pick up in the post-election, end-of-year period. The Board's Leading Economic Index stood at 112.4 at the end of November. The...
-
Housing starts rose 3.9% overall and 6.9% for single-family homes in November, seasonally adjusted, compared to the same month in 2009, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Permits overall fell 4%, but single-family permits were up 3%. Starts were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 555,000 in...
-
Home builders were no more or less confident in the market for new homes in December, the National Association of Home Builders reported Wednesday. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) remained at 16, flat with November and in line with analyst expectations.
-
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee on Tuesday concluded its December meeting with near unanimous agreement on continuation of its $600 million government bond buying program and its 0% to 0.25% target for the federal funds rate.
-
It depends on what you count.
-
When Pulte merged with Centex to create PulteGroup in 2009, the company said it had created the largest home building company in the country. And it was in 2008 numbers, by both closings and revenue, if you added up the business each company did that year--39,000 homes closed and $11.6 billion in...
-
Comstock Homebuilding Companies, Inc., Reston, Va. (NASDAQ: CHCI) on Friday said it has formed joint ventures with Four Points, LLC for the development of two new infill communities in Washington, D.C. The two communities, to be known as The Hampshires and Cedar Hill, will include approximately 150...
-
Beazer Homes USA is the most recent production builder to settle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over allegations that the company violated stormwater discharge rules across the country. The Atlanta-based company has agreed to pay a $925,000 penalty and implement a compliance program...
-
Mortgage applications fell last week, driven lower as fewer homeowners applied to refinance existing loans in the face of higher interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Applications for purchase mortgages, however, continued to rise. The MBA's Market Composite Index...
-
Trulia.com and RealtyTrac Tuesay said the latest results of an ongoing survey tracking homebuyers' attitudes toward foreclosed homes indicate that 58% of U.S. adults expect recovery in the housing market to take at least another two years. Half have less faith in mortgage lenders, banks and the...
-
Standard Pacific, Irvine, Calif. (NYSE:SPF) on Tuesday said it would issue and sell in a private offering $650 million in senior notes, with a portion in addition to the company's outstanding 8 3/8% senior notes due 2018 and a portion to be a new series of senior notes due 2020. The company said it...
-
Luxury builder loses $3.4 million in fiscal 2010's fourth quarter.
-
Five years off its peak financial performance and an economic downturn later, Toll Brothers came out of its fiscal 2010 at nearly breakeven, logging a net loss of $3.4 million, or ($0.02) per share. CEO Doug Yearley dubbed it a "solid" performance, considering the business was off 75% from its 2005...
-
Pending Home Sales Surge in October
Pending sales of existing homes rose 10.4% in October, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The NAR's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), rose to 89.3 based on contracts signed in October from 80.9 in September. The index remained 20.5% below a surge to a cyclical peak of 112.4 in...
-
Toll Brothers Inc., Horsham, Pa. (NYSE:TOL) on Thursday morning reported net income of $50.5 million ($0.30 per share) for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, up from a loss of $111.4 million (-$0.68 per share) in the comparable quarter of 2009. The profit included a net tax benefit of $59.9...
-
The week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday saw mortgage application volume drop 16.5% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. However, the seasonally adjusted estimate for purchase-only mortgages increased. On an unadjusted basis...
-
Tax-credit withdrawal syndrome continued to dog the housing market in September as price declines accelerated from August, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday. The 10-City Index dropped 0.5% in September from August, the 20-City declined 0.7%, leaving the former...
-
Currently, foreclosures--and whether they will or will not continue apace--appear the most significant threat to the overall housing market. When asked when the inventory overhang of foreclosed properties would be cleared,
-
Sales of new single-family homes took a significant turn downward in October as seasonal factors combined with a continuing hangover from the expired federal home-buyer tax credit. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new-home sales fell 8.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 283...
-
Standard Pacific announced a series of three financial moves Tuesday that it says will position the company to aggressively buy discounted land during the market's slowdown. One of the three moves increases Standard Pacific's cash holdings, but it also ups MatlinPatterson Global Advisors' ante in...
-
Sales of existing single-family detached homes in California declined 3.5% in October to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 450,360, 19.6% below the pace recorded in October 2009, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. Prices also declined, with the median price for a...
-
Sales of existing single-family, condominium and coop homes fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million in October, a 2.2% drop from September and 25.9% below the pace of October, 2009, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. Wall Street was expecting a drop to a rate...
-
U.K.-based home builder has said in past that it may consider selling its North American builders: Taylor Morrison (U.S.) and Monarch (Canada).
-
Toll Brothers purchases WCI community in Florida for $27 million and one in Connecticut for $23.5 million.
-
After selling two more large developments to Toll Brothers, WCI Communities announced Monday that it had paid off its $300 million senior term loan 15 months after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move reduces the company's total debt from when it exited bankruptcy by 68% and...
-
Taylor Wimpey, parent company of Taylor Morrison in the United States, has struck an agreement to refinance its debts, clearing the way for a possible sale of its North American assets, including those in the United States. During a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Taylor Wimpey CEO Peter...
-
As the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform prepares to deliver its recommendations for fixing the country's spiraling debt and deficit problems to the White House, the housing industry braces for yet another blow. Clearly in the crosshairs as the commission struggles to boost...
-
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday that is Market Composite Index, which measures the volume of new mortgages, fell 14.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week. The MBA noted that the index did not take into account the Veterans Day holiday and said that the...
-
Housing starts moved downward from September to October, driven primarily by softness in multi-family construction and unstable and perhaps suspect data, but permits rose, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Starts moved down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 519,000, 11.7% below the...
The dollars and sense of scaling solar energy in new homes.
Organizations' instincts are to simplify and manage from the top down. Here's the flip side.
Seemingly doomed to disappear after filing for bankruptcy protection, Orleans Homebuilders is pulling itself up out of the trenches.
Post election, the political environment and a host of critical issues could shackle a nascent housing recovery
As recovery nears, take steps to lure back the best industry professionals out there.
It lives where you can find it, on demand.
-
In a strategy to preserve between $228 million and $350 million in tax benefits, Beazer Homes USA's board has re-enacted a stockholder-rights plan that it had let expire before it issued more equity in January. Under the plan, the acquisition of 4.95% of the company
-
Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) on Monday said its quarterly analysis of home prices in the markets not covered by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that single-family home prices rose an average of 3.6% during this year
-
M/I Homes, Inc., Columbuns (NYSE: MHO) on Friday said $158.6 million in outstanding 6.875% senior notes due 2012 had been validly tendered before the midnight, Nov. 10 deadline. It said it expected to fund the buyback with the net proceeds from its private placement of $200 million aggregate...
-
D.R. Horton CEO Donald J. Tomnitz isn't expecting much good to come out of the 2011 spring selling season, he told analysts Friday. "I just don't see a lot of hope for a great spring market," he said. "I believe our gross margins will have some pressure in spring, simply because right now we are...
-
CEO Tomnitz: Economy's woes are likely to hold home sales in check next year.
-
D.R. Horton, Ft. Worth (NYSE:DHI) on Friday reported a net loss for its fourth fiscal quarter ended September 30 of $8.9 million (-$0.03 per diluted share), compared with a loss of $234.9 million (-$0.74 per share) for the comparable quarter in 2009. The loss included $30.8 million in pre-tax...
-
Beazer Homes USA has pushed the due date on its major debt back another two years to 2015 as a result of a senior note sale it completed this week. "This will give us runway all the way until the last half of 2015," said Jeffrey Hoza, Beazer's vice president and treasurer. The Atlanta-based company...
-
In the wake of the announced departure of Jeffrey Orleans, Orleans Homebuilders, Inc.(Pink Sheets: OHBIQ.PK) announced that George E. Casey, Jr., a home-building veteran of Toll Brothers, the St. Joe Company, Realen Homes, and several other regional companies, has been named "to lead the company as...
-
Activity in the mortgage markets picked up last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA's Market Composite index rose 5.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, with both the Refinance Index (+6%) and the Purchase Index (+5.5%) posting increases. It was the...
-
Avatar Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AVTR) on Tuesday reported a net loss of $9.5 million ($0.84 per share, diluted) for its third quarter ended September 30. The results compare to a loss of $8.8 million ($1.01 per share, diluted) for the comparable quarter last year. The sole analyst surveyed by First...
-
M.D.C. Holdings senior vice president and CFO Christopher M. Anderson has retired from the company effective Nov. 6, but will remain a consultant for another 90 days.
-
Longtime Orleans Homebuilders CEO Jeffrey P. Orleans is leaving the company founded by his grandfather. A bankruptcy judge approved Monday a separation and settlement agreement negotiated with Orleans as the company has been working its way out of bankruptcy. Under the agreement, Orleans agreed to...
-
As part of its ongoing work to restructure its debt, Beazer Homes USA announced Monday a proposal to sell $200 million in senior notes to be due in 2019. The private notes would be offered to qualified institutional buyers and would be exempt from registration with the Securities and Exchange...
-
Retiring CEO Tom Krobot discusses the timing of turning the company over to his successor.
-
It seems somehow fitting that Kenneth S. Balogh, the incoming CEO of Ashton Woods, was born about the same time retiring CEO Tom Krobot was getting into the home building business some 39 years and several real estate cycles ago. "I'll miss [the business]," said Krobot. "But I'll be 64 next...
-
William Lyon Homes, Newport Beach, Calif. on Friday reported a net loss of $8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2010, a 31% improvement from results for the prior-year quarter. The loss included impairments of $7.7 million.
-
Atlanta-based builder's fourth quarter was its worst in a year; however, it did modestly increase closings and orders in its fiscal year.
-
Usually Beazer Homes USA's fourth quarter, which ends Sept 30, is its best. This year, dragged down by fewer closings, impairments and discounted inventory home sales, it was its worst. "While we were pleased with overall progress in fiscal 2010, we are disappointed with the quarter," said CEO Ian...
-
Existing homes going under contract declined in September, likely in part the result of the beginning of foreclosure moratoriums in response to allegations of paperwork errors, the National Association of Realtors reported Friday. NAR, which released the data at a conference and thus later than its...
-
Lennar announced late Thursday that it has agreed to sell $435 million of 2.75% convertible senior notes, due 2020. Earlier Thursday it announced the intent to sell notes with the principal amount of $350 million.
-
Beazer Homes USA, Atlanta (NYSE:BZH) on Friday morning reported a net loss of $59.5 million, including a net loss from discontinued operations of $2.1 million and $26.5 million in inventory impairments, for its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter ended Sept. 30. The loss compared with a $33.5 million profit...
-
Lennar Corp. announced plans Thursday to raise $350 million by selling convertible senior notes, cash it says it might use to invest in distressed debt through its Rialto joint ventures. The announcement said the company plans to use the proceeds "for general corporate purposes, which may include...
-
Kenneth S. Balogh will replace Tom Krobot, who is retiring.
-
Goodwill impairments on its Centex purchase as well as insurance reserves bring heavy writedowns in 2010's Q3.
-
Just when the black-ink earnings reports were becoming more likely than not among home builders, PulteGroup reported earnings Wednesday that carried nearly a billion dollars worth of red ink. Almost all the $995 million, $2.63 a share, loss was related to one-time paper charges including a good...
-
PulteGroup, Inc., Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (NYSE:PHM) on Wednesday reported a net loss of $995 million, or $2.63 per share, for its third quarter ended Sept. 30. The loss was due primarily to $986 million, or $2.60 per share, in charges for goodwill impairment, construction and other insurance...
-
Florida's voters overwhelmingly voted against a state constitutional amendment Tuesday that would have required every land plan or change to be approved by local voters. Changing the state's constitution would have required a 60% vote. Instead, roughly 67% voted against the change.
-
Applications for mortgages for home purchases rose again last week as those for refinancings of existing loans fell. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. reported Wednesday that its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5% last week on a seasonally adjusted basis...
-
Ashton Woods' board of directors has elected a new chief executive to replace retiring Tom Krobot. Kenneth S. Balogh, the company's COO, will become the new CEO on Jan. 1. In order to have an orderly transition, Krobot, 63, who has been Ashton Woods' president and CEO since 1995, will remain at the...
-
Two more public home builders will report earnings this week, PulteGroup on Wednesday and Beazer Homes USA on Friday. Analysts aren't expecting either to post a profit, but there were some surprises in last week's earnings reports that could bode well for these two builders as well. Some hot topics...
-
recently asked its readers to weigh in on how the mid-term elections will affect the economy and the home building business. Almost half of the respondents--47.4%--said they believe both houses of Congress will gain a Republican majority, while 34.2% said they think the House will gain a Republic...
-
Denver-based builder focuses on growing community numbers for spring selling season.
-
Management at M.D.C Holdings likes to think that August was it, the absolute lowest point for the housing market. "If it's the low point of the cycle, then over the next few years, there will be rewards for those companies that are able to execute in what we hope will be an expanding market," CEO...
-
M.D.C. Holdings, Inc., Denver (NYSE: MDC) on Friday morning reported a net loss for the 2010 third quarter ended Sept. 30 of $10.2 million (-$0.22 per share), compared with a net loss for the 2009 third quarter of $32.0 million (-$0.69 per share). The results beat the consensus analyst estimate of...
-
In an earnings week when a number of public home builders have been coming close to breaking even or even chalking up a bit of a profit, Ryland Homes stood out, reporting a loss of $0.68 a share, more than double what analyst consensus expected. In the same quarter last year Ryland lost $1.20 a...
-
But CEO Hilton warns turning a profit in the last quarter of 2010 will be tough.
-
Meritage Homes announced its fourth consecutive profitable quarter Wednesday, posting earnings of $0.04 a share, surprising analysts who had predicted a loss of $0.07 a share, but it wasn't easy and it's going to be tough to do in the traditionally slow last quarter of the year, CEO Steven J...
-
M/I Homes, Inc., Columbus (NYSE:MHO) on Thursday first announced it intends to offer $150 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2018 to fund the buyback of $200 million in its outstanding 6.875% senior notes dues 2012. The offering had not yet been priced. Later, the company upped...
-
Average home sales price moves up 14% to $302,000.
-
The Ryland Group, Calabasas, Calif. (NYSE:RYL) late Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of $29.9 million, or $0.68 per diluted share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to a consolidated net loss of $52.5 million, or $1.20 per diluted share, for the same period in 2009. For the...
-
Meritage Homes Corp., Phoenix (NYSE:MTH) on Wednesday reported net income of $1.2 million ($0.04 per diluted share) for its third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared to a net loss of $17.8 million (-$0.56 per share) in the same quarter in 2009. The results included pre-tax charges for $0.8 million in...
-
Despite narrowing its losses, the builder cut staff by 8% in its third quarter.
-
Home orders that continue to fall have caused Standard Pacific CEO Ken Campbell to re-consider when he thinks the home building market will get back to some semblance of normal. "2015 is when we get there," Campbell said, answering questions from analysts during the company's third quarter...
-
Despite revenues and deliveries that were down by more than a third compared with last year, Standard Pacific Corp. posted a profit Tuesday of $4.5 million, $0.02 a share, for its third quarter, beating analyst consensus estimate of a $0.01 loss and last year's $0.10 a share loss. It was the second...
-
Despite handily beating analysts' earnings expectations and narrowing its loss for 3Q2010 to $2.1 million, or 0.11 cents a share, M/I Homes CEO Bob Schottenstein told analysts during an earnings call yesterday afternoon that weak demand in the market, resulting in fewer new orders, was pushing the...
-
Public builder pays $62 million in cash, stock, and notes for real estate portfolio that also includes land in Florida and Arizona.
-
Evidence of the expiration of government incentives for home buyers surfaced prominently in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for August, which broke their recent trend of sequential price increases during the month as sellers cut prices to make up for the lost tax credits. The 10-City...
-
Avatar Holdings, Coral Gables (NASDAQ:AVTR) late Monday said it acquired a portfolio of real estate assets in Arizona and Florida, including Joseph Carl Homes, for approximately $62 million in cash, stock and notes, plus an earn-out of up to $8 million. The purchase was made from JEN Partners LLC...
-
As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dig deeper into mortgage underwriting in an effort to mitigate loan losses, risk could be growing for builders' mortgage affiliates. Increasingly over the past few quarters, the GSEs have been forcing banks to take back bad mortgages after loan document reviews reveal...
-
Sales of existing single-family homes, condo and coops jumped 10% in September, the strongest monthly gain in nearly 28 years, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. The news touched off a rally in builder stocks on Wall Street, with the entire group posting solid gains by late...
-
M/I Homes, Columbus, Ohio (NYSE:MHO) on Monday reported a net loss of $2.1 million (-$0.11 per share) for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 as home building revenue fell 11.2% to $132 million on fewer closings. The loss, which included impairments of $1.9 million offset by a $2.4 million recovery...
-
With a handful of home builders reporting quarterly earnings this week, by Friday it should be clear just how dark the post tax-credit dog days of summer were for a big chunk of the large national builders. Standard Pacific Homes (SPF), The Ryland Group (RYL), Meritage Homes (MTH), and M.D.C...
-
Reports this week put home sales in California down 16% in the south and 20% in the north. On Friday, the California Association of Realtors reported that sales were up 3.8% statewide to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 466,580, up from August's revised pace of 449,290.
-
More than 2,600 people and organizations responded to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's call for comments on its proposal to prohibit Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks from buying mortgages tied to homes in communities with private transfer fees. However, it remains...
-
Jeffrey P. Orleans, grandson of the company's founder, has agreed to resign from the company, which is being reorganized in bankruptcy.
-
NVR Inc., Reston, Va. (NYSE:NVR) opened builder earnings season Thursday morning with a better-than-expected performance despite the expiration of government homebuying incentives. Net income for NVR's third quarter ended September 30 was $43.9 million, or $7.31 per diluted share, down 39% and 37%...