Home Builders Hammered by Housing Slump
Publicly traded builders see profits plummet during "challenging" market.
April 27, 2007 — -- Thanks to better-than-expected corporate earnings, the Dow broke through the 13,000 mark for the first time Wednesday.
But not everyone is celebrating.
The nation's largest, publicly traded home builders are reporting significant drops in revenue and profits.
Pulte Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, reported Wednesday that it lost nearly $86 million during the first three months of this year. During the same time period a year ago, the company earned a profit of $262 million.
In a statement, Pulte President and CEO Richard Dugas said, "Overall, the home building environment remained challenging during the first quarter of 2007."
The nation's largest builder, D.R. Horton, also struggled during the first months of the year. It saw revenues drop 26 percent to $2.61 billion compared with the same period last year. Profits fell 85 percent from more than $352 million a year ago to nearly $52 million.
Horton chairman Donald Horton said in a statement, "Market conditions in the home building industry continue to be challenging in most of our markets as inventory levels of both new and existing homes remain high, and further increases in the use of sales incentives continue to put pressure on profit margins."
Challenging just begins to describe the housing market.
Sales of new homes, while up slightly in March, were down 23 percent compared with a year ago. And the 8.4 percent precipitous drop in existing home sales in March was the biggest one month decline since 1989 and reversed the four previous months of increasing home sales.
As A.G. Edwards home building analyst Greg Gieber said there is "definitely too much housing out there and demand is not strong."
In previous months, home builders used a mix of financial incentives, such as paying closing costs or buying down interest rates or offering upgrades like granite countertops and high-end flooring.
But according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders, many builders have actually reduced the level of incentives. In March, 54 percent of home builders offered nonfinancial incentives to sell their homes, down from 60 percent in December.
