Hovnanian Sees Losses Accelerate

Newark, NJ, December 19, 2007--Home builder Hovnanian Enterprises saw its fiscal fourth-quarter loss nearly quadruple.

The company had net loss of $469.3 million or $7.42 per share, compared to a loss of $117.9 million, or $1.88 per share a year ago. Revenue fell 20 percent to $1.39 billion from $1.75 billion in the same period last year.

"Considering the challenging market conditions that homebuilders are continuing to face, we are pleased to have exceeded our expectations for cash generation in the fourth quarter and to have paid down our debt levels more than we projected," President and Chief Executive Ara K. Hovnanian said in a statement.

"However, after a very slow period for new sales contracts in October and November, we have experienced an improvement in sales pace during the first three weeks of December. This is encouraging given that December is historically a slower sales month."