Toll Brothers Swings To Second Quarter Loss

Horsham, PA, June 3, 2008--Luxury home builder Toll Brothers reported a net second quarter loss of $93.7 million, or $0.59 per share.

A year ago the company earned $36.7 million, or $0.22 per share.

The 2008 earnings include pre-tax write-downs of $288.1 million and after-tax write-downs of $174.6 million.

Excluding write-downs, earnings were $81.3 million, or $0.49 per share.

In the first six months of this year, Toll generated a net loss of $189.7 million, or $1.20 per share. Excluding write-downs of $858 million, earnings were $138.6 million, or $0.84 per share, compared to $228.4 million or $1.39 per share a year ago.

Second quarter revenues of $818.8 million were 30 percent lower than 2007's second-quarter total of $1.17 billion.

The backlog at the end of the quarter was $2.08 billion, half as much as the $4.15 billion backlog a year ago.

Toll reported gross contracts of $730.5 million and 1,237 homes, about half of year-ago totals of $1.44 billion. The company also reported fewer cancellations, 308, compared to 384 a year ago.

The average selling price was $590,000, compared to $711,000 last year and $634,000 in the first quarter, as the company offered higher incentives and sold fewer high priced homes.