The final three public builders—Smith Douglas Homes, Landsea Homes, and United Homes Group—reported financial results for the fiscal first quarter, rounding out the earnings period for the home building industry.
During the period, builders noted consumer hesitation, economic uncertainty, and a slower than typical spring selling season. After strong performance over the past several quarters, builders in the first quarter reported softer year-over-year performance in revenue and closings.
Smith Douglas and Landsea Homes both reported positive year-over-year revenue and closing performance, but noted inconsistent demand and the importance of incentives in sales in the current environment. Landsea’s earnings results were reported in conjunction with the news of the public builder’s sale to New Home Co., the No. 62 company on the Builder 100, backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
First Quarter By the Numbers
- Smith Douglas: The home builder reported home closings increased 19% year-over-year in the period to 671 homes as home closing revenue increased 19% to $224.7 million. Net new home orders in the first quarter increased to 768 in the quarter from 765 in the same period a year ago. Total controlled lots for Smith Douglas Homes increased 45% to 20,442 in the period as active community count increased 24% to 87 at the end of the period. In the first quarter, the company generated pretax income of $19.6 million and profit per share of $0.30.
- Landsea Homes: The builder’s revenue increased 6% year-over-year to $310.8 million in the period, driven by a 27% increase in homes closed, partially offset by a 20% in average selling price. Net new home orders increased 11.1% year-over-year to 679 homes with a monthly absorption rate of 3.0 sales per active community. Landsea Homes ended the period with 426 homes in backlog and 10,516 owned or controlled lots. The company posted a net loss of $7.3 million in the first quarter and net loss per share of $0.20.
- United Homes Group: Home closings decreased 19% year-over-year to 252, resulting in revenue of $87.0 million (down 14% year-over-year). Net new orders in the period fell 23% to 296 in the first quarter of 2025. The builder ended the period with 7,500 owned or controlled lots.
What They’re Saying
“Order activity improved as the quarter progressed, though I would characterize overall demand as somewhat inconsistent and still dependent on incentives. While affordability remains an issue in our markets, we continue to see good traffic to our website and our communities. We feel this is a reflection on the appeal of our homes and the value proposition we provide to buyers.”—Russ Devendorf, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Smith Douglas Homes
“Despite much of the noise surrounding macroeconomic uncertainty, we remain confident in our ability to execute on our strategic plans and achieve our long-term growth goals. We believe our asset light strategy, solid operational execution, and strong balance sheet has us well-positioned to successfully navigate today’s changing home building landscape.”—Devendorf
“We are encouraged by the demand elasticity we saw during the quarter as buyers responded to declines in mortgage rates and higher incentives. Order activity started off slowly to begin the year, then picked up as the quarter progressed. Affordability remains an important issue for most buyers, so financing incentives were a key driver of sales during the quarter.”—John Ho, CEO, Landsea Homes
“Our sales pace began to improve during the second half of February, but given the slow sales pace in January, our closing volume was down during the quarter as we closed a high proportion of homes sold during the fires half of the quarter in the second half of the quarter.”—Jamie Pirrello, interim CEO of United Homes Group
“Our strategy of moving away from building all-spec inventory, and now offering pre-sales, is also achieving higher gross margins than our traditional spec sales. Our direct cost reduction initiative is delivering meaningful results. We expect to generate the vast majority of these savings in the second half of the year as they run through cost of sales.”—Pirrello
