Business strong for LV home builders

Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. builder of luxury houses and a Las Vegas home builder, last week said revenue from home building rose 46 percent during the company's fiscal third quarter.

A preliminary tally for the three months ended July 31 shows revenue rose to $991 million from $679 million in the year-earlier period, company said in a statement. Home sales rose 42 percent to 1,684 units, Toll said.

Buyers signed 2,329 contracts to buy Toll homes during the quarter, valued at $1.61 billion, compared with 1,668 homes valued at $951.6 million a year earlier. By the end of the quarter the company's backlog of homes ordered and not yet delivered rose to 6,856 units valued at $4.35 billion, compared with 4,392 units, at $2.48 billion, a year earlier.

In the Las Vegas area, Toll Brothers closed escrow on 275 houses in 2003. During the first two quarters of 2004, the company closed escrow on 138 homes, Home Builders Research Inc. reported.

Toll, the sixth-largest U.S. builder by stock market value, typically issues preliminary results in advance of its earnings report, scheduled for Aug. 25. The company is based in Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

Separately, William Lyon Homes on Thursday reported a profit of $31.1 million or $3.14 per share for the second quarter ended June 30, up from $13.8 million, or $1.38 in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue for the Newport Beach, Calif., company grew 142 percent to $384.5 million.

The company attributed the improvement to more home completions along with the strong housing markets in many of the communities in which William Lyon builds.

In the Las Vegas Valley in 2003, the company closed escrow on 559 homes, Home Builders Research reported. During the first half of 2004, William Lyon closed escrow on 358 houses in the Las Vegas area, SalesTraq reported.

The company had 219 net new home orders during the second quarter in Nevada. The average sales price for a William Lyon home in Nevada during the second quarter was $284,900, the company reported. In Nevada, William Lyon only builds homes in Clark County.