Free Republic

Desperately searching for scraps of bad economic news that could help push the economy into recession, Yahoo News finds one homebuilder in one state, while ignoring the surging market everywhere for previously-owned housing. I read the headline below and almost started to weep because the economy is in such dire straits that luxury home builders are struggling, especially in California. Luxury Homebuilder's Woes Show Mounting U.S. Slowdown Fears Maybe California should raise taxes and increase regulations some more. That will help. Maybe we need a GoFundMe page to raise money for the luxury home builders. Toll Brothers stock is...

High-end home builder Toll Brothers reported a drop in fiscal third-quarter profits Wednesday, but the dip was due largely to a tax expense as pre-tax income, revenues and home deliveries all climbed in the quarter. Toll Brothers recorded net income of $46.6 million, or 26 cents per share, down from $61.6 million a year ago. The 2012 figure included an $18.7 million tax benefit though, compared with a $21.7 million tax expense in the most recent quarter. On a pre-tax basis Toll Brothers earned $68.3 million, up from $43 million a year ago. [SNIP] Net signed contracts were up 47%...

In an interview with Bloomberg Friday morning Bob Toll, CEO of Toll Brothers, says the housing market is “coming back”. He sees the pressures in real estate alleviating as consumers rebound and government programs help boost up the market. Toll says we’re on the verge of a “serious good time”: I don’t see prices going down any longer. I think you’re gonna see them start to go up. As they accelerate we’ll get closer to a serious good time again, but we’re not there yet. Despite this, the Toll Brothers CEO has dumped hundreds of millions in stock and company...

After being widely derided for being asleep at the switch while folks like Bernard Madoff gradually stole tens of billions of dollars from unwitting clients, the SEC is now targeting subprime lenders, hedge funds and home builders. Imagine what kind of mixer that group would throw! From a BuilderOnline.com story: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has been roundly chided for not uncovering several high-profile investment fraud schemes, is getting more aggressive. It now has launched a series of investigations focusing on subprime lenders, hedge funds, and home builders.“The SEC is fully committed to addressing the [economic] crisis,”...

Toll Brothers (TOL) director Bruce Toll sold 500,000 shares of his TOL holdings on December 19 for $31.62 per share netting him $15,810,000. And, that is apparently a drop in the bucket to what he has been selling. On November 15, 2006, he sold 350,900 at $28.64 per share and then again on November 16, 2006 he sold another 149,100 at 29.20 per share. Even further back in September he sold 355,000 at $28.99 per share. Pretty massive selling by an insider. Other officers of the company have been selling quite a bit too over the last year.