CEO: Media contributes to housing woes

Floyd Norris of the New York  Times writes Friday that Toll Brothers CEO Robert Toll blamed the media on a conference call for the poor sales for his homebuilding company.

Norris wrote, “‘Perhaps as the presidential campaign heats up and moves to the front page, negative articles about housing will move off the front page,’ he said. ‘Then, hopefully, the positive underpinnings of low interest rates, low unemployment and a decent economy will raise new-home-buyer confidence.’

“The company said many of the canceled home purchases were for its more expensive homes. The average price of new orders in the quarter was $646,000, but the average price of canceled orders was $788,000.”

Later, he noted that Toll said, “‘People who just wanted to walk’ accounted for 17 percent of the cancellations, he said.

“‘Translation, they’ve read one too many Times articles, and decided now is not the time to buy a home,’ he said.”

Read more here.

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