Business briefs for January 11, 2002

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

Home builders set new sales record

Home builders in the Las Vegas Valley set a record for home sales in 2001, with 22,940 units sold, Home Builders Research reported Thursday.

KB Home retained its No. 1 position for home closings within the market, closing on 3,027 homes last year. Del Webb Corp. held the No. 2 spot, with 1,564 homes, and American West Homes followed with 1,005 closings. Pardee Homes and Pulte Home Corp. rounded out the top five, with 910 closings and 836 closings, respectively.

Pulte acquired Del Webb last summer, paving the way for the combined entity to place a close second to KB Home in the year ahead.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, said the local market's strength surprised him.

"The thing we, like everyone else, underestimated was the strength of housing demand in Las Vegas, because we didn't realize interest rates would remain as low as they did for as long as they did," Smith said.

"After Sept. 11 we had to look again at where the market was, and no one really knew for a couple months how the housing market would be affected. No one knew how long or how deep any type of reaction would be. It was two weeks, and that surprised everybody, even the builders."

The previous local home sales record was set in 1999, when builders closed on 21,162 units, said the Home Builders Research report.

Smith said a record year for 2002 isn't likely, as he expects a land supply shortage to curb new home sales slightly this year.

Retailers report differing results

Kmart Corp. said Thursday it was seeking additional financing and reviewing its business plans for the next two fiscal years after announcing its earnings for the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 would fall short of analysts' expectations.

A spokesman for Kmart said the company, which has a $1.5 billion revolving line of credit, would seek more money through its lead banker, JP Morgan Chase.

Meanwhile, Sears, Roebuck and Co. said it expects to overcome lower holiday sales and exceed Wall Street's expectations for fourth-quarter earnings thanks to improved profit margins and lower operating costs.

The news came as many retailers -- particularly other discounters -- produced better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter.

But Kmart said its December sales, monitored in stores that had been open at least a year, fell 1 percent. Kmart executives had anticipated sales to remain flat or to grow by as much as 2 percent.