by Calculated Risk on 9/08/2006 07:03:00 PM

From AP: Lennar Cuts 3Q Profit Outlook

Lennar Corp., one of the nation's biggest homebuilders, cut its third-quarter earnings projections Friday due to a decrease in new orders amid softening in the housing market.
...
"The U.S. housing market has continued to deteriorate," Miller said. "Given difficult market conditions, we have limited our land purchases while we have remained focused on even flow production and minimizing completed inventory."

From MarketWatch: Standard Pacific cuts third-quarter outlook

The Irvine, Calif.-based homebuilder [Standard Pacific Corp.] ... said net new home orders for the first two months of the third quarter were down 58% from the same period last year, driven mainly by an increase in the company's cancellation rate and further weakening of demand in many of its larger markets. The company's gross orders for July and August were off 30% from last year.

Note: The Census Bureau only reports new home initial sales and does not include cancellations. For Standard Pacific, new home sales are off 30% from last year for August and July, but if cancellations are included, new home sales are off 58%.

For July, the Census Bureau reported new home sales were off 22% compared to July 2005. However, if cancellations are included, the sales decline might be closer to 30% (just a guess based on the unusually large number of cancellations reported by the major builders).