Inman

Real estate price increases boost home builder’s 3Q income

Home builder and mortgage banking company NVR Inc. today announced net income of $189.4 million for the third quarter, up 28.3 percent from third-quarter 2004.

Consolidated revenues increased 18 percent to $1.37 billion for the third quarter of this year compared to third-quarter 2004. New orders increased 7 percent to 2,897 units for the third quarter of 2005 when compared to the third quarter of 2004. New orders increased in each region, except Washington, D.C., which was negatively impacted by generally weaker market conditions, NVR reported.

Backlog at the end of the period increased 14 percent to 8,875 units when compared to the same time last year. The dollar value of the backlog units totaled $3.83 billion at the end of the September 2005 quarter, a 30 percent increase from a year earlier.

Home-building revenues for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2005, totaled $1.35 billion, 18 percent higher than the year earlier period. Income before tax from the homebuilding segment totaled $291.7 million, an increase of 26 percent when compared to the third quarter of the previous year, NVR announced. Gross profit margins improved to 28.1 percent for the third quarter of 2005 compared to 26 percent for the same quarter of 2004. The company reported that the company realized this margin improvement by raising prices in certain markets, which more than offset rising material and land costs.

The company reported that closed loan production from its mortgage-banking segment increased 17 percent in the third quarter of 2005 compared to the third quarter of 2004. The mortgage segment’s operating income for the 2005 third quarter increased to $16.2 million, a 10 percent increase from the same period of 2004.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2005, consolidated revenues were $3.6 billion, 18 percent higher than consolidated revenues for the same period of 2004. Net income for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2005, was $475 million, an increase of 30 percent when compared to the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2004. Earnings per diluted share for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2005 was $59.87, an increase of 29 percent from the $46.36 per diluted share reported for the comparable period of 2004.

The company has increased its full-year 2005 guidance to 30 percent growth in net income when compared to 2004. The company also stated that during the first nine months of 2005 it had repurchased approximately 643,000 shares of its common stock.

New-home orders dropped from 766 units in third-quarter 2004 to 622 in third-quarter 2005 in the Washington, D.C., metro area, NVR reported, but increased in the company’s other markets. The company’s average new order price was $399,300 for the third quarter of 2005, up 6.7 percent from third-quarter 2004.

NVR also builds homes in the Baltimore metro area, in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

***

What’s your opinion? Send your Letter to the Editor to opinion@inman.com.