Toll Bros. swings to a loss

Luxury home builder Toll Bros. Inc. on Wednesday reported its biggest quarterly loss in 22 years as the worst housing recession in more than two decades forced the company to write down the value of developments.

The net loss in the fiscal first quarter that ended Jan. 31 was $96 million, or 61 cents a share, compared with earnings of $54.3 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, the Horsham, Pa.-based company said.

Toll was projected to report a loss of 50 cents a share, according to the average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

“Ceaseless talk of a recession continues to dampen the mood of consumers,” Chief Executive Robert Toll said. “This drumbeat, coupled with concerns over mortgages, the direction of home prices and foreclosures, has kept pent-up demand on the sidelines.”

The results included pretax write-downs of $245.5 million, or 93 cents a share. Revenue fell 23% to $842.9 million.

The average price of Toll’s signed contracts in the quarter fell 13% to $634,000. The average price of the canceled homes was $770,000.

The company said its cancellation rate was 28% in the first quarter, down from a record 39% in the previous three months. The net value of contracts dropped 50% to $375 million from a year earlier. The order backlog, or homes under contract and yet to be sold, fell 42% to $2.4 billion.

Toll Bros. shares rose 71 cents, or 3.1%, to $23.83.