One of the national largest hombuliders Centex Homes declares huge loses. Dallas Morning News announced : " Dallas-based Centex Corp. – one of the country's largest homebuilders – lost more than $910 million in the most recent quarter.
Centex closings for the quarter, which ended March 31, fell 33 percent from a year ago, the company said Wednesday.
Centex officials tried to put a positive spin on another losing quarter.
"In the most difficult housing market in decades, we accomplished a number of key goals: We lowered our debt, reduced our land position and generated strong operating cash flow," chief executive Tim Eller said in a statement.
He also said the company "significantly reduced our unsold inventory and completed a large land sale."
Centex's core homebuilding operations lost $853 million in the quarter, including a $362 million write-off and a $395 million loss related to a major land sale.
Centex said its new-home sales orders at the end of March were down 15 percent from a year earlier.
The biggest decline – 34 percent – was in the central U.S. division.
In Texas, sales orders were down 17 percent from a year ago.
Total revenue for the most recent quarter was $2.3 billion, down from $3.6 billion a year earlier.
Centex lost $7.36 per share, compared with a $1.65 profit a year earlier. Analysts had expected the company to lose $2.43 a share.
For fiscal 2008, which also ended in March, Centex lost $2.7 billion, or $21.68 a share, compared with a $268 million profit, or $2.23, in fiscal 2007.
Annual revenue was $8.3 billion, compared with $11.9 billion in 2007.
Centex released its quarterly financial data after the markets closed.
The stock price ended at $20.82, down 6.34 ".