D.R. Horton Posts Loss on Charges, Slow Sales

Fort Worth, TX, May 6, 2008--Homebuilder D.R. Horton said it swung to a loss in the second quarter, as a sustained housing slump forced the nation's largest homebuilder to take significant charges and write down the value of property.

The company reported a loss of $1.31 billion, or $4.14 per share, compared with profit of $51.7 million, or 16 cents per share, a year ago. The quarter includes pretax write-down charges of $834.1 million.

Revenue tumbled to $1.62 billion from $2.62 billion a year ago.

"Although market conditions in the homebuilding industry remain challenging, we continue to focus on reducing inventory and generating cash flow from operations, said Chairman Donald Horton. "We reduced our homes in residential inventory to approximately 15,100 homes at the end of March.

The inventory held on the balance sheet was down 12 percent from the end of December.

The company's sales backlog of homes under contract as of March 31 was 8,947 homes, worth $2.1 billion, compared with 16,885 homes, worth $4.8 billion, at the same time last year.