Kevin Bacon's famous role as Chip Diller in National Lampoon's Animal House comes to mind as the bad news gets worse in the Housing Market. His quote "Remain Calm. All is Well" as he is trampled by a sea of humanity, is pretty much where the National Association of Realtors is at.
Home builder D.R. Horton earnings plunge 85 pct
NEW YORK (Reuters) - D.R. Horton Inc. , the largest U.S. home builder, said on Thursday quarterly earnings fell 85 percent, in part due to charges related to the lower value of land.
The U.S. housing market has been in a severe downturn for the past year, with a mounting glut of homes on the market, increasingly resistant prospective buyers and tighter lending standards. Builders have responded by slashing prices, throwing in freebies and cutting back on "spec homes" -- those built speculatively without a buyer.
"We continue to operate in a very difficult home-building environment," Horton Chief Executive Donald Tomnitz told analysts during a conference call.
"We believe that there will be continued softness in '08, and I would expect that we'll continue to adjust our inventories downward in the first two quarters of '08," Tomnitz said.
Unlike other home builders, Horton said it has no plans to weed out potential buyers who may not be able to qualify for a loan in order to bring down the cancellation rate.
"As I've said to all our salespeople, if a buyer is warm and has a pulse, we want to put them on paper," he said.
