Lawler on Builder Results

A few comments and a table from economist Tom Lawler:

D.R. Horton and Beazer Homes released their operating results for the quarter ended September 30th today. Here is a table showing some summary stats for nine large publicly-traded home builders. The net orders and settlements figures include results from “discontinued operations.”

The combined order backlog of the builders on September 30th, 2012 was 30,461, up 44.6% from last September.

CR Note: I broke Tom's table into two sections - the first for orders and settlements, and the second for prices.

This increase in net orders was about the same as last quarter (year-over-year), and the backlog is continuing to increase.

	Net Orders			Settlements
Qtr. Ended:	9/30/2012	9/30/2011	% Chg	9/30/2012	9/30/2011	% Chg
D.R. Horton	5,276	4,241	24.4%	5,575	4,987	11.8%
PulteGroup	4,544	3,564	27.5%	4,418	4,198	5.2%
NVR	2,558	2,218	15.3%	2,656	2,255	17.8%
The Ryland Group	1,507	1,008	49.5%	1,322	1,015	30.2%
Beazer Homes	1,110	1,023	8.5%	1,608	1,404	14.5%
Standard Pacific	989	764	29.5%	861	697	23.5%
Meritage Homes	1,204	906	32.9%	1,197	840	42.5%
MDC Holdings	1,008	595	69.4%	1,039	707	47.0%
M/I Homes	757	587	29.0%	746	582	28.2%
Total	18,953	14,906	27.2%	19,422	16,685	16.4%

	Average Closing Price
Qtr. Ended:	9/30/2012	9/30/2011	% Chg
D.R. Horton	$231,085	$215,300	7.3%
PulteGroup	$279,000	$262,000	6.5%
NVR	$321,700	$308,900	4.1%
The Ryland Group	$264,000	$249,000	6.0%
Beazer Homes	$228,600	$228,100	0.2%
Standard Pacific	$369,000	$346,000	6.6%
Meritage Homes	$280,000	$259,000	8.1%
MDC Holdings	$308,600	$289,800	6.5%
M/I Homes	$266,000	$238,000	11.8%
Total	$271,027	$254,436	6.5%