Pulte sold more homes in the first quarter of 2019
Home construction company Pulte Group has projected that lower home prices and dropping mortgage rates will bring homebuyers back to the market after slowing demand in the second quarter of last year.
Pulte CEO Ryan Marshall said that the recent drop in mortgage rates could ease some of the affordability challenges homebuyers face.
“Real opportunity lies in lowering house costs, not just for first-time buyers, but across our entire planned portfolio,” he said on a post-earnings conference call.
Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has dropped by about 80 basis points since November after the Federal Reserve suspended the GSE’s three-year monetary policy tightening campaign.
The hot housing market and lower borrowing costs boosted sales of new single-family homes to a near one and a half-year high in March. But housing inventory and labor shortages still made it harder to build more low-cost homes, according to a Reuters report.
Pulte sold 4,635 homes in Q1 of 2019, showing a marginal growth of 0.2%, or nine units from a year ago. The company also saw its total revenue increased 1.4% to $1.99 billion, while its net income decreased 2.3% to $166.8 million (59 cents per share) in the quarter.
“We are optimistic that 2019 can turn out to be a good year for the housing industry with demand supported by strong jobs and historic lows on unemployment,” Marshall said.
