Housing Woes
Hurt Toll Brothers
by Dow Jones Newswires
From The Wall Street Journal Online
February 07, 2008
Toll Brothers Inc. Wednesday said that its fiscal first-quarter home-building revenue fell 22% from year-earlier levels to $842.7 million and it doesn't see any end in sight to housing-market woes.
The company said it is still finalizing its first-quarter impairment analysis, but expects pretax write-downs of between $150 million and $300 million.
"The housing market remains very weak in most areas. Based on current traffic and deposits, we are not yet seeing much light at the end of the tunnel," said Robert Toll, the firm's chairman and CEO.
Toll Brothers said its backlog fell to $2.4 billion, down 42% from the fiscal first quarter of 2007. The company said the gross number of signed contracts on homes fell 46% from last year. Toll said the average price of a house it sold fell, while the average price of cancelled houses rose.
"With conditions still weak in most markets, we expect to continue to face challenging times ahead," Toll said.
Toll will report full first-quarter results on Feb. 27.
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