Sunday, August 29, 2010

Luxury Homebuilding:The Toll Brothers View

Toll Brothers' buyers are skittish;they're scared.It's been a choppy summer.The psyche of this country is fragile.We need good news,to get the bad news out of the headlines.There is tremendous pent-up demand.Right now,they're just skittish.The tax credit didn't help Toll Brothers.It's the highest time ever for affordability,with the 4% rate.Toll Brothers doesn't think it's about a price reduction.Their backlog is down.They have about nine months' visibility.They're not a spec builder.In the short term,they think it's slowing,but in the long term,they think it looks pretty good.They feel pretty good about 2011.The housing market problems started with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
It really begins with the quality of a Toll Brothers visitor.The quality today is up significantly.They seem to be real qualified visitors who are interested in buying.
Douglas Yearley is now CEO of Toll Brothers,having succeeded Bob Toll.They describe themselves as "America's Luxury Home Builders."They sponsor Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on public radio.
Toll Brothers(TOL)

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