Homebuilder Lennar Corp. announced its first-quarter results, revealing that revenue from home sales jumped 40% year-over year to $855.1 million from $610.7 million in the first quarter of 2012.
“Our first quarter results clearly reflect continued improvement in the marketplace. Current market conditions are driven by strong demand resulting from low interest rates and attractive home prices, which have led to very affordable monthly payments, compared to increasing rental rates,” said Stuart Miller, chief executive officer of Lennar ($42.12 -0.27%).
The homebuilder reported net earnings of $57.5 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2013.
This compares to the first quarter of 2012, when the company reported net earnings of $15.0 million, or $0.08 per diluted share.
Lennar’s backlog of homes — customer orders that are either incomplete or in the process of completion — rose 82% to 4,922 homes.
Miller notes that the supply continues to be limited by low inventories coupled with fewer competing homebuilders. It is because of this that pricing trends have appreciated as reflected by a 13% increase in the average sales price of homes in Lennar’s backlog at quarter-end, compared to last year.
Gross profits on land for sale lots totaled $3.0 million in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $2.9 million in last year’s first quarter. Yet, with the market recovering, making way for homebuilders to potentially jump back in to serve new homebuyers, land acquisitions is also a focus.
Miller added, “Against this backdrop of recovery in the housing market, we have continued to be a very active land purchaser spending almost $500 million on land in the first quarter. We are well positioned for 2013 and 2014 so our land focus is now primarily on homesites for 2015 and beyond.”
The author of this article is: Megan Hopkins
See the original post at: http://www.housingwire.com/news/2013/03/20/home-sales-boost-revenue-homebuilder-lennar
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