Toll Bros. posts trimmer Q2 loss

Luxury-home builder Toll Bros. reported Wednesday a second-quarter net loss of $20.8 million, about half what the Horsham-based company lost in the same period last year.

The loss was 12 cents per share, compared with 24 cents per share in its 2010 second quarter, when Toll's net loss was $40.4 million.

"We continue to see stability, and, in some cases, improvement, across our various luxury-product lines," said Douglas C. Yearley Jr., Toll's chief executive officer. "Target customers generally have remained employed during this downturn, and, with their solid credit profiles, been able to secure mortgages at good rates."

The National Association of Home Builders reported Wednesday that housing affordability during the first quarter of 2011 rose to its highest level in the 20-plus years it has been measured.

But buyers and builders "continue to confront extremely tight credit conditions," the group said, "and this remains a significant obstacle to many potential home sales."

Last week, loan applications rose slightly, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday, but the pace of the increase was slower than in the previous week.

Toll Bros.' second-quarter results included $32.5 million in pretax writedowns and impairments from joint ventures, compared with $42.3 million a year ago.

Excluding writedowns and impairments, the quarter's pretax income was $1 million, compared with a loss of $9.5 million in the 2010 period.

Toll delivered 591 units, 9 percent more than the 543 of a year ago. Revenues rose 3 percent, from $311.3 million to $319.7 million.

Buyers signed contracts of $521.1 million for 915 units in the quarter, 6 percent higher in dollars and unit volume than the $489.4 million and 866 contracts signed in the second quarter 2010.

The average price per unit of gross contracts was $570,000, compared with $561,000 in its first quarter of 2011 and $565,000 in its second quarter. There were 10 fewer contract cancellations (36 versus 46) than in the 2010 period.

Executive chairman Robert I. Toll said, "Many studies quoted in the media combine distressed sales data, including foreclosures and short sales, with new and/or non-distressed existing-home sales data. We believe that averaging distressed and non-distressed sales data provides a misleading picture to the public regarding home-price direction."

Nationally, total new-home sales in April rose 7.3 percent from March, but remained 23 percent lower than the same month a year ago, the Commerce Department reported this week.

Vickie Bryan of Gimmie Credit said Wednesday that though the cycle is stabilizing, "there is little to indicate a significant rebound" soon.

Prices remain weak, Bryan said, and new-home sales "now claim less than 6 percent of total home sales versus 16 percent at the market peak in 2005."

"Most home builders have evolved a much more sober outlook versus previous enthusiasm for a bounce of sorts beginning in the latter half of this year," she said.