Are home builders in for better times?
Leading home builders such as Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and Toll Brother Inc. will be announcing their financial results this week. We will know if the government’s initiative to strengthen the housing market has had any positive impact on the sector. The housing sector has been hit by an oversupply of homes and credit crisis in the recent past. Toll Brothers last reported a profit about two years ago, and Hovnanian has been reporting losses since the last 10 quarters. Analysts are hopeful that both the companies will report lower loss numbers in the second quarter of this year. Last month, Toll Brothers reported a 37% drop in orders from the earlier year and its revenue dropped 51% to $398.3 million for the quarter ended April 30. Still, home builders seem to feel optimistic about the near-term prospects. Robert Toll, the chief executive officer of Toll Brothers, said, “With interest rates at an historic low, home price affordability at an historic high and consumer confidence starti
