Home Builder Toll Brothers Revenues Continue to Collapse

<August 13, 2008><Reuters>Toll Brothers Inc., the nation’s largest builder of luxury homes, said today that preliminary results for the third quarter indicate a decline in revenues of 34 percent according to a report in Reuters. The company said it was experiencing weakness is most of its markets and that due to the current state of the economy, it was “not comfortable” giving any type of earnings guidelines.

Chief Executive Robert Toll (seen at right) said, “Our third-quarter results for revenues, contracts and backlog reflect the continued weakness in most of our markets. However, we believe there is a growing pent-up demand from those who have postponed buying during the past three months.”

The company says revenues for the quarter ending July 31 are expected to be around $796.5 million, well off last year’s $1.21 billion. Backlog for the quarter was off 52% to $1.75 billion and net contracts signed were off 35% to around $469.7 million.

Since 2006, the housing market has been in a steep decline of historical dimensions. Virtually every major home builder has struggled with sales declines, credit collapse, and contract cancellations.

Toll Brothers say that they ended the quarter with $1.5 billion in cash and another $1.3 billion in available credit.

(Photo: Reuters)