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New home sales fell 1.8% in February to 590k, this actually a relief from the predicted fall off to a rate of 576k. This was the lowest level of new home sales since February 1995. Over the past year, sales have declined 29.8%. Regionally, sales plummeted 40.3% in the Northeast and were down 6.4% in the Midwest. Sales gained 5.7% in the South and edged 0.7% higher in the West. The inventory of homes available for sales decreased to 471k but the month’s supply remained unchanged at 9.8 because of the reduced pace of sales. High inventories and sluggish demand continue to weigh on prices with median prices down 2.7% to $244,100 as average prices dropped 7.8% to $296,400. Demand for new housing is expected to remain weak because of a hamstrung mortgage industry and slower job creation. Also, pricing will remain soft under elevated inventory levels which could discourage some buyers from wading into the market until pricing has stabilized. Residential construction activity is expected to decline through 2008 but at a gradually diminishing pace.
New Home Builders are promoting low prices and moving away from their past incentive promotions.
Stuck with excess inventory, builders throughout California are beginning to offer steep discounts on new homes, sometimes at a loss. Centex Corp. is touting the “greatest prices in years” in its ads. In San Bernardino County, builder Van Daele Homes is advertising 35% discounts.
Until recently, most builders resisted outright price cuts in California to avoid undermining the value of their holdings. Instead, many offered incentives such as big-screen televisions or interior upgrades.
SunCal Companies, a 70-year-old, family-run developer with projects throughout California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, has been sued seven times in Orange County since October by companies claiming the firm or its affiliates defaulted on loans, court settlements or bills for construction and consulting work. The company also faces complaints and legal action over alleged work stoppages on pending projects.
Toll Brothers today reported a $96 million net loss in the first quarter of the 2008 fiscal year, or 61 cents per share, with the company’s CEO blaming “ceaseless talk of a recession” for sapping consumers’ will to buy.
Toll Brothers had first-quarter revenues of $842.9 million, down 23 percent compared to first-quarter 2007. Gross signed contracts in the first quarter totaled 904 homes worth $573.1 million. The volume of homes dropped 38 percent and the dollar amount fell 46 percent compared to the first quarter of the 2007 fiscal year, the company reported.
Irvine-based master developer SunCal Cos. is buying a 1,600-acre plot of land in Central Florida, its first acquisition in the eastern part of the U.S.
SunCal a new home builder is buying property in Osceola County’s Toho Preserve from Fort Worth, Texas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc., according to local reports. The site’s entitled for up to 3,650 homes and 450,000 square feet of shops and office space.
Beazer Homes USA Inc., a top home builder, announced Friday that it will shut down operations in Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Columbia, S.C.; and Lexington, Ky. Operations in these areas represent only 5 percent of the company’s home building business.
Beazer will be recommending Countrywide Financial Corp. to its customers as part of a new marketing deal with the mortgage company, which is being acquired by Bank of America.
A builder of luxury condominiums in Florida has sued real estate practitioners, seeking to force them to return the 3 percent commissions paid to them for selling 24 condos on which the deals never closed. In most cases, buyers walked away from their purchase contracts after the value of the condos fell.
Observers predict that this could be a trend. “We’re definitely going to see more cases like this,” says Austin MacMullan, a partner at Real Estate Research Corp., which studies housing trends. “This is just one of the side effects of the glut that I don’t think anyone could have anticipated.”
Atherton-Newport Investments LLC, an Irvine-based apartment owner that counts a number said on Thursday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
It was prompted by one of Atherton-Newport’s creditors, the company said. The bankruptcy filing says the company counts $10 million to $50 million of both assets and liabilities.
Creditors include Anaheim slugger Vladimir Guerrero, Etan Thomas of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, and Nikolai Khabibulin of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. The company controls about 5,000 apartments in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle and Florida.
Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) will hold a five-day public auction for more than 1,000 residential properties over the course of three weekends–allowing time off for the Super Bowl– during January and February in Southern California.
Some homes in the auction, which will take place between January 26 and February 10, will have starting bids that are 40 percent lower than the previously valued price.
