KB Home Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
June 21, 2023

There are 14 speakers on the call.

Operator

Afternoon. My name is John, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the KB Home 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the company's opening remarks, we will open the lines for questions.

Operator

Today's conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay at the company's website, kbhome.com, through July 21. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Jill Peters, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you, Jill. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to review our results for the Q2 of fiscal 2023. On the call are Jeff Mezger, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Rob McGibney, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Kaminski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Bill Hollinger, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer and Thad Johnson, Senior Vice President and Treasurer. During this call, items will be discussed that are considered forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future results and the company does not undertake any obligation to update them.

Speaker 1

Due to various factors, including those detailed in today's press release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Actual results could be materially different from those stated or implied in the forward looking statements. In addition, a reconciliation of the non GAAP measure of adjusted housing gross profit margin, which excludes inventory related charges And any other non GAAP measure referenced during today's discussion to its most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in today's press release and or on the Investor Relations page of our website at kbhome.com. And with that, here is Jeff Mezger.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jill, and good afternoon, everyone. We delivered strong results in our Q2, including a significant sequential improvement in our net orders. Our divisions executed well, improved our cycle times, reduced build costs further on new starts and open new communities, all of which will benefit us in the quarters ahead. As for the details of our results, We exceeded the high end of the guidance we provided in March with total revenues of $1,800,000,000 and diluted earnings per share of 1.94 Our backlog continues to provide stability in deliveries and revenues with 3,666 homes closed during the quarter. This was higher than our implied delivery guidance by about 700 homes, driven by improved build times, fewer cancellations and better conversion of our unsold inventory.

Speaker 2

At 11.7%, our homebuilding operating income margin, excluding inventory related charges, reflected a solid gross margin of over 21% and a healthy SG and A expense ratio below 10%. This performance, along with the cumulative benefit of several quarters of share repurchases, drove our book value per share The $46.72 up 24% year over year. The long term outlook for the housing market remains healthy. Market dynamics are characterized by low existing home inventory And limited availability of new homes at our price points as well as demographics that are particularly favorable for our business, given that we primarily serve the first time and affordable first move up segments. With respect to demand, Buyers are adjusting to higher mortgage rates and the continuation of a more stable rate environment is a positive factor.

Speaker 2

In addition, with the lack of resale inventory that I mentioned and market price is now starting to increase, Buyers are demonstrating a higher sense of urgency than we saw earlier this year. As we discussed on our Q1 call, We have begun to see a sequential improvement in demand in February, which continued throughout our 2nd quarter. As a result, we generated net orders of 3,936, significantly above our guidance, reflecting a year over year increase in our gross orders and the cancellation rate that is moderating back toward historical levels. On a per community basis, our absorption pace averaged 5.2 net orders per month, which is consistent with Our strategic goal Continues to be optimizing each asset, which generally results in a monthly absorption pace of between 45 net orders per community and generating high inventory turns. We typically experience a peak in absorption in our Q2 coinciding with the spring selling season and then see a sequential decline in our 3rd and 4th quarters.

Speaker 2

While we do not usually provide guidance on net orders, We recognize it is helpful to investors considering the soft comparison in last year's Q3 when interest rates have started their rapid increase. Demand has remained strong in June and while our 20 23 Q3 net orders could be influenced in either direction by an increase in resale inventory levels or a move in interest rates. We project a range of between 3,003,500 net orders. Our business spans geographic markets that were selected for their long term growth potential. With the diversification provided by our ongoing expansion of our Southeast region, which we discussed on our earnings call in March, our footprint is more balanced today than it was just a few years ago.

Speaker 2

Much has been written about the California market and over the years building homes in this state has moved in and out of favor From the investor perception point of view, I want to spend a moment sharing some facts with you and our thoughts about the opportunity we see here. While numbers differ depending on the source, some public policy firms peg the existing shortfall of housing production relative to the 40,000,000 people living in California and more than 1,000,000 homes. For a number of reasons, Including a challenging regulatory environment, the state is severely undersupplied and there are not enough new homes built each year to overcome the deficit, let alone achieve equilibrium between supply and demand. In addition to the shortage, California's housing stock is aging with approximately 75% having been built before 2,000, higher than most of our markets. According to a recent report from Moody's Analytics, the state is projected to have above average job And income growth longer term, which together with the factors that I just referenced point to a highly attractive market opportunity in California.

Speaker 2

Within the state, our business has become better balanced across our served markets With our inland divisions benefiting from work from home trends and affordability, while our coastal price points are now more affordable, As we rotated out of most of our $1,000,000 plus price communities, we have long tenured teams in California that are well versed in identifying and acquiring land that meets our return requirements, navigating the complex regulatory environment and running profitable businesses. From a regional standpoint, our West Coast business is now Also augmented by our operations in Seattle and Boise, which provide further diversification and growth. We believe we are well positioned to leverage our scale and capture the sizable opportunity in our West region, while also continuing to expand across the remainder of our operating footprint. Our backlog at the end of the second quarter stood at nearly 7,300 homes valued at approximately $3,500,000,000 This marks the first sequential growth in our backlog in the past year. With our built to order model, we work from a large backlog and see value In the visibility and stability in deliveries that our backlog provides, particularly in times of challenging market conditions, As we saw during the past year, with the improvement in our build times, which Rob will speak to in a moment, We expect to be able to convert our backlog to deliveries more quickly in the future than we have seen over the past 2 years.

Speaker 2

During the quarter, we started 3,556 homes, aligning our starts with net orders and ended the quarter with more than 7,300 homes in production, of which over 75% are sold, consistent with our targeted split of built to order and inventory homes. We expect to ramp up our starts in the 3rd quarter. And while we continue to prioritize our built to order model, we are supplementing our starts with additional inventory homes given market conditions and a lack of supply. With that, let me pause for a moment and ask Rob to provide an operational update. Ron?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Jeff. I'll start with some color on our net order results and then discuss the progress that we have made on build times and direct Cost followed by a supply chain update. As Jeff mentioned earlier, the sequential strengthening of our net orders month by month in our 2nd quarter Continued the trend that began in February. We focus on optimizing each asset on a community by community basis, balancing pace, price and margin. In late 2022 early 2023, as we converted more of our large community backlogs to deliveries, We were in a position to adjust pricing to stimulate sales and we took steps in most locations to lower pricing based on current market conditions.

Speaker 3

That trend reversed in our Q2 as demand improved and markets began to normalize and we were able to raise prices in about 2 thirds of our communities, the benefit of which we expect to see in early 2024 when these homes are delivered. In the other one third, pricing either remained flat or was lowered with the latter representing only a handful of communities. We continued to use rate buy downs selectively, such as when a buyer needs it to qualify, which occurred in fewer communities than earlier in the year. As to build times, We drove a significant sequential improvement with the reduction of over 40 days in the 2nd quarter from slab start to home completion. At roughly 7 months, our construction times are still running above our historical level of between 4 5 months depending on the division, but we are making solid progress in returning to those levels.

Speaker 3

In addition to reducing our cost and the amount of cash we have tied up in our work in progress, Faster build time should also help our selling efforts on our personalized homes. The construction time improvement was driven by a normalizing supply And better trade labor availability as well as our ongoing initiatives to simplify our product offerings, design studio choices and structural options. We have reduced our SKUs by 43% over the past 18 months, retaining the studio options that are most frequently selected by our customers and those most readily available in the supply chain. These changes have created efficiencies for our teams, our trade partners and our customers while helping to lower our cost and time to build. We shared with you on our last call in March that direct cost on homes started We're down approximately $19,000 from the peak in August 2022.

Speaker 3

During the Q2, we continue to make progress in this area with an additional reduction of roughly $4,000 on new starts. Specific to the supply chain, while some products remain in short supply with Long lead times in several markets, such as air conditioning and heating equipment, insulation and electrical products, including switchgear and transformers, Overall product availability continues to normalize. With respect to trade labor, it is becoming more available contributing to our compression and build times. In most of our markets, we've developed long term relationships with our trade partners, many over the course of multiple decades. The even flow production inherent in our built to order model is attractive to contractors who value the consistency of our starts as opposed to the peaks and valleys of a speculative business model.

Speaker 3

As we look forward, we plan to continue leveraging the improved cycle time, lower cost and normalizing supply chain to help drive future volume and margins. And with that, I will turn the call back over to Jeff.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Rob. Moving on to our mortgage joint venture, KBHS Home Loans, About 80% of the mortgages funded during the quarter were financed through our JV and these buyers continued to have strong credit profiles. About 60% of KBHS customers utilize the conventional mortgage and roughly 90% use fixed rate products. The average cash down payment held steady with the 1st quarter at 15%, equating to roughly $72,000 The average household income of these buyers was over 137,000 above the median household income in our submarkets And our FICO score was 736. We continue to attract buyers above our targeted income levels with healthy credit who can qualify at higher mortgage rates and make a significant down payment.

Speaker 2

During the quarter, We maintained our cautious approach to land investment, spending $81,000,000 to acquire new land. While our divisions are diligently looking for land deals, we're being disciplined in our underwriting with respect to achieving our required returns. We have the flexibility to remain selective given our current lot position and healthy balance sheet. With demand improving, We expect our land acquisition activity to accelerate during the second half of twenty twenty three. We continue to actively develop land that we already own as we invested $316,000,000 in development and related fees during the Q2.

Speaker 2

As part of a continuous review of our land portfolio, we are renegotiating some land contracts to reduce purchase prices and extend closing time lines. We are also reengaging with sellers on certain deals we had previously abandoned, often find that we are now able to get better terms or better pricing. Our lot position stands at just under 58,000 lots Owned or controlled, of which approximately 43,500 are owned, representing just over 3 years supply, which is consistent with our historical level. Generally, we continue to develop lots on a just in time basis, Focused on smaller phases with a lower cash outlay, balancing our development phasing with our starts pace to manage our inventory of finished lots. We are well positioned as we currently own or control The lots that we need to achieve our delivery growth targets over the next couple of years.

Speaker 2

We again increased the amount of capital that we returned to shareholders during the quarter given the strong level of cash generated from our operations. Our repurchase totaled $92,000,000 for nearly 3% of our shares outstanding. Over the past 24 months, We have now repurchased about 15% of our outstanding shares at an average price of $36.81 returning approximately $610,000,000 to shareholders, including our quarterly dividend. The repurchases have been accretive to our earnings and book value per share and enhanced our return on equity. Looking ahead, We will remain balanced in our capital allocation, reinvesting in our business and returning cash to shareholders.

Speaker 2

In closing, I want to thank the entire KB Home team for their commitment to our customers and our company, which drove our strong results in the Q2. While there are still uncertainties with respect to the economy In the second half of our fiscal year, we have a business model and balance sheet that will allow us to remain flexible in navigating market conditions. We are well positioned to achieve our now higher guidance for 2023 of about $6,000,000,000 in revenue at the midpoint And a gross margin of approximately 21.2% based on the size and composition of our backlog. We look forward to continuing to update you on the progress of our business later this year. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jeff for the financial review.

Speaker 2

Jeff?

Speaker 4

Thank you, Jeff, and good afternoon, everyone. I will now cover highlights of our 2023 second quarter financial performance and provide our current outlook for the Q3 and full year. Amid steadily improving housing market conditions throughout the Q2, Our solid execution produced financial results that exceeded our expectations and guidance across all key metrics. In addition, our strong operating cash flow allowed us to repurchase an additional 2,200,000 shares of our common stock And eliminate outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Our housing revenues of $1,760,000,000 for Quarter rose from $1,710,000,000 for the prior year period, reflecting a 6% increase in the number of homes delivered, partially offset by a 3% decline in their overall average selling price.

Speaker 4

Based on our current construction cycle times and backlog, We anticipate our 2023 Q3 housing revenues will be in the range of $1,350,000,000 to $1,500,000,000 For the full year, we are increasing a range of expected housing revenues to $5,800,000,000 to $6,200,000,000 We believe we are well positioned to achieve this top line full year forecast based on the construction status of homes in our 2nd quarter ending backlog, current housing market conditions and anticipated continued improvement in our build times. In the Q2, our overall average selling price of homes delivered decreased to $480,000 from $494,000 in the prior year period As increases of 2% to 11% across 3 of our regions were offset by a 5% decrease in our West Coast region, which has the highest ASP of our 4 regions. The decline in this region was as in the 2023 Q1, Mainly the result of community mix shift in our Southern California business where several communities with $1,000,000 plus selling prices delivered out in 2022. For the 2023 Q3, we are projecting a sequential decline And the overall average selling price of approximately $470,000 and expect an increase in the 4th quarter due to a higher mix of deliveries from our West Coast region.

Speaker 4

We still believe our average selling price for the full year will be approximately $485,000 Homebuilding operating income in the current quarter was $202,100,000 as compared to $264,500,000 in the year earlier quarter. The current quarter included abandonment charges of $4,300,000 versus $700,000 a year ago. Excluding inventory related charges, our 11.7 percent operating margin for the current quarter decreased 380 basis points year over year. We expect our 2023 Q3 homebuilding operating income margin, excluding the impact of any inventory related charges, to be in the range of 9.5% to 10.1%. For the full year, we expect our operating margin excluding any inventory related charges to be about 11%.

Speaker 4

Our 20 23 second quarter housing gross profit margin was 21.1% This compared to 25.3% in the year earlier quarter. Excluding inventory related charges in both periods, Our gross margin decreased by 390 basis points to 21.4%. The year over year decline It was mainly driven by price decreases in other homebuyer concessions together with increased construction costs and a shift in the mix of homes delivered. Assuming no inventory related charges, we are forecasting a 2023 Q3 housing gross profit margin in a range of 20.4% to 21.0% and a full year margin of approximately 21.2%. Our selling, general and administrative expense ratio of 9.6 percent for the 2023 Q2 improved from 9.8% for the 2020 2 quarter.

Speaker 4

The slight improvement mainly reflected operating leverage from higher revenues in the current quarter. We believe our 2023 Q3 SG and A expense ratio will be approximately 10.6% to 11.2% And our full year ratio will be about 10.3%. Our income tax expense for the Q2 of $50,500,000 represented an effective tax rate of 24% compared to 26% for the prior year period. The 2 percentage point improvement was due to the favorable impacts of federal energy tax credits in the current quarter. We now expect our effective tax rate for the 2023 Q3 as well as the full year to be approximately 23%.

Speaker 4

Overall, we produced net income for the Q2 of 100 $64,400,000 or $1.94 per diluted share compared to 210,700,000 or $2.32 per diluted share for the prior year period. Turning now to community count. Our 2nd quarter average of 253 increased 20% from the year earlier quarter. We ended the quarter with 2 49 communities, reflecting 20 openings and 27 sellouts during the period. We anticipate our average community count for the 3rd quarter to be up approximately Year over year.

Speaker 4

With the sequential decline in our quarter end community count reflecting increased sellouts due to expected continued solid order trends and a higher proportion of communities with a relatively low number of remaining homes to sell. We expect The full year average to be up about 10% year over year and the year end count to be approximately flat as compared to the prior year. To drive continued new community openings, we invested $396,000,000 in land and development during the Q2 and ended the quarter with a pipeline of nearly 58,000 lots owned or under contract. In the 2023 first half, we invested a total of 7 $3,000,000 in land and land development, of which approximately 83% was in land development. At quarter end, our total liquidity was over $1,600,000,000 including nearly $1,100,000,000 of available capacity under our unsecured revolving credit facility with no cash borrowings outstanding and $557,000,000 of cash.

Speaker 4

During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 2,200,000 shares of our common stock at an average price of $42.58 which is 9% below our quarter end book value per share. With over $400,000,000 remaining under our current Common stock repurchase authorization. We intend to continue to repurchase shares with the pace, volume and timing based on considerations of our operating cash flow, liquidity outlook, land investment opportunities and needs, the market price of our shares and the housing market in general economic environments. Our quarter end stockholders' equity was $3,800,000,000 Our book value per share was up 24% year over year to $46.72 reflecting our financial performance coupled with common stock repurchases over the past several quarters. In conclusion, we are very pleased with our solid second quarter financial performance and Strong operational execution, key factors supporting our enhanced financial outlook for the remainder of the year.

Speaker 4

Given favorable trends in both cycle time and housing market conditions, we are optimistic about our improved full year forecast and expect to finish 2023 on a solid foundation for further improvements in 2024. We will now take your questions. Please open the lines.

Operator

Thank you, sir. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer And we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. And our first question comes from the line of John Lovallo with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 5

Good afternoon, guys, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one is maybe on just the Margin outlook for the Q3 on both gross and operating, seems like a fairly wide range and down sequentially. The down sequentially part seems like it could be a function of timing and mix. But curious what you see as sort of the factors that may drive the higher and lower end of both of those margin ranges, please?

Speaker 4

Sure. Yes, let's just starting with the full year for a second. We've raised our guidance by 20 basis points for the full year midpoint to midpoint this Quarter versus last quarter. So we are more optimistic than we were last quarter, obviously, in the full year number. We did have quite a mix shift In the pull forward of deliveries into the Q2 and we saw a nice leverage impact on the margins in the second quarter.

Speaker 4

So a lot of the And actually a lot of the beat in the second quarter is actually due to the higher leverage from the delivery. So I would say overall, our margin progression It's very similar to what we were expecting. We talked about during last quarter's call that we expected relatively consistent Gross margins in the back half of the year and they're still varying right around that 21% range almost for the full year with a little bit up in the 1st half

Speaker 3

and a little bit lower in

Speaker 4

the second half. And the second half is really reflecting the time when a lot of those units were sold. So if you look back to the 3rd Q4 of last year and the market dislocation and the pricing, etcetera, that went through along with the cost When those homes are started, you'll see them ticking you'll see that second half margin ticking down a little bit. But all that said, at this point, We'd expect the trough margin to be in the Q3 and see that starting to increase beginning in the Q4 modestly.

Speaker 5

That's helpful. And it sounds like the setup into 2024 is pretty good as well here. But I guess the next question would be, in the 2 thirds of communities where You guys were able to take price up. Help us maybe just kind of ballpark what that price increase look like? And then in the markets where you lowered prices, What markets were those?

Speaker 5

And by how much order of magnitude did you lower prices, please?

Speaker 2

Rob, you want to take that?

Speaker 3

Sure, Jeff. So backing up a little bit, we shared with you before that we had adjusted pricing down in late Q4 of 'twenty two and on early Q1 of 2023 to find the market and get back to our minimum base of 1 per week per community, especially in those communities where we've delivered out a large Chunk of the high backlog levels we were carrying and those changes worked. They were effective. And then as the market began picking up and strengthening in February and our As we've improved, we started lifting price, which is just part of our ongoing strategy to optimize each asset. And that continued throughout the Q2.

Speaker 3

So on the first part of your question, the price increases we implemented in Q2, It was really broad based across our footprint. I mean, we didn't have any divisions where we didn't have some lift in pricing. And I mentioned in the prepared remarks that, That hit about 70% of our communities. It was spread out across the country. And the average increase was a little over $11,000 And then on the balance, there were less than 10% that received a price decrease.

Speaker 3

And I'm not exactly sure on The amount of price, it was less than what the increases were. I think it was around $8,000 And then the remainder of those, the other 20%, it was flat with no pricing change.

Operator

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of Mike Dahl with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just to start on the Demand environment seems like you're saying still pretty strong into June. And I think your guidance, when I look at the orders plus the community count guide, it doesn't Imply that pace, while it slipped sequentially, it's still better than normal seasonality. So maybe could you just add a little color on what you More specifically as you've kind of exited the spring selling season and how you're seeing that shape up relative to what you'd normally expect?

Speaker 2

John, our I'm sorry, Mike. As I shared in our prepared comments, the Demand has remained strong here in our Q3. And what we see across the system really, There is so little inventory available on the resale side that it's pushing buyers to pay the premium for new As compared to resale because there just isn't a lot out there that's desirable for them. And so I mentioned that we have this normal Cyclicality to our sales pace and we typically see a drop down in the Q3. And if You look at the guide, we're not projecting as significant a decline as we typically would.

Speaker 2

And it's tied right back to there's no inventory out there. So if rates stay where they are right now and we continue to see the market conditions we're seeing, that's What leads us to a guide that's still based on that community count is still about a little over 4 a month Per community. So we're pretty pleased with the way the consumer is responding right now in these conditions.

Speaker 6

Okay. That helps. Thanks. And my second question, Jeff, is just on some of the comments around land investment. It seems like there There's probably some puts and takes as the markets rebounded pretty quickly.

Speaker 6

Haven't really been that many distressed land opportunities that have emerged Coming out of this cycle, the publics are all pretty well capitalized. Now that starts are ramping, maybe people are looking to get back in the land game. Yes. Flipside is there's some there's probably some optimism that given some of the banking fallout, maybe your private competitors will be a little bit more sidelined. So could you just give us a little more color on as you look to ramp back up your land acquisition while still Staying disciplined, what are you seeing in terms of competitive dynamics?

Speaker 6

Where are some examples, either geographic or otherwise Some successes that you're starting to see.

Speaker 2

Well, you touched on a lot of The topics that I would share with you in a response in that in most of our markets, there's a lot of large Well capitalized landowners and they were very patient through the softening in demand and pricing really didn't Capitulate and now as demand is improving and you can again underwrite to a pace in a submarket, Numbers are tight, but you can figure out ways to make them work. We have been successful with some of the smaller sellers That aren't as well capitalized where we may have abandoned it and they just sat on it for a while and now we're back engaged with them and we're getting better pricing or For better terms, and they now have certainty of closing in. So our teams never stopped looking. We weren't as aggressive in our look in Q3 and Q4 as we would be today in pursuing land activity, and I think it's Pretty balanced out there. We're not the only builder out chasing land, so it's competitive.

Speaker 2

But if you have a good team and a good network in that city, There's deals to be had and it will continue to be a balance. I don't know, Rob, if you want to share any color on I can't think of a market that's any better or worse than the others. They're all pretty typical, but maybe you're aware of something.

Speaker 3

No, no, I think you got it, sir Jeff. I think that's right.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Alan Ratner with Zelman and Associates. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Hey guys, good afternoon. Nice results and thanks for the time. First question, you kind of made a comment which is similar to what we're hearing from About ramping spec starts in the near term given the tightness in resale. And you guys are obviously Build to order builder at your core. So I'm curious if you could give some numbers behind that.

Speaker 7

What percentage of Your starts right now are speculative. Where do you see that share going for your business? And anything we should think about Far as mix differences on these spec homes either from a price standpoint, a margin standpoint, a geography standpoint?

Speaker 2

Rob, you want to take that?

Speaker 3

Yes, sure. So we don't really manage it to percentages. I mean it depends on what's going on in Specific community and the specific division. And first of all, we're committed to our built to order model. But in the short term, with the lack of inventory in the market, We're going to get more starts in the ground to take advantage of this current market condition with ultra low inventory.

Speaker 3

And as we reload our pipeline with more BTO sales will reduce spec starts, but just talking about what's going on out there, I mean, there was an article released this morning and it was observing that there are Fewer resale homes for sale in May than any other month on record and we're running at just 1.8 months of supply and we've got think it was 35%, 37% of the resales out there are now selling above list price. So it's not straying from our overall strategy, just looking to take advantage of The current conditions with no inventory or low inventory. As far as the product, We've got laboratories out there in each of our communities that kind of tell us which plans, which product, which price point, with what features are most in demand and those are the And when we do start inventory, that's going to be our focus is to align with that.

Speaker 8

Is the idea on these homes to

Speaker 7

sell them at various stages of Construction and maybe still provide an opportunity for consumers to use your design studios or are these more kind of completed inventory homes that You're hoping to sell more for quick moving?

Speaker 3

Well, up to a certain point, we're coming off some Pretty wild supply chain issues where we had to order early and get things done fast. But in the early stages, we will sell these homes at any point during the construction cycle. But if the buyer gets in early, there's an opportunity to have them personalize certain things, especially like finished materials. But we're We will allow it, but we're also not going to allow changes up to the point where it's going to slow down construction or cause a delay in completing that home.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question

Speaker 2

I was going to say, Alan, to that point, we've had good success With inventory starts because it takes a few weeks to get a permit, you pick the floor plan, the elevation, you permit it And it sells before the foundation is poured, then the buyer gets the full array in the studio. So It's not a it's an inventory start, but it's really just a pre plotted start to compress the time Because we're fighting the cycle time still. Get more houses in the ground and the buyers are buying them in the early stages. So it's worked very well for us.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Stephen Kim with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 9

Yes. Thanks very much, guys. Congrats on the good results. It seems like from your comments that you're pretty much able to sell whatever it Is that you can build and so I wanted to ask you a question or so about your starts. I think you had indicated that You were planning to have starts in the Q3, I think somewhere north of where your orders would be.

Speaker 9

Correct. So I mean, clarify that if you could. Are we talking about 3,500 starts or so? And then that would be up year over year, but I think you said your community count would be kind of flat by year end. And so I'm just kind of curious as to What we think is a what you think is a good run rate for starts as you look ahead Is this let's say it's $3,500 in the Q3, is that can we annualize that?

Speaker 9

Can we take that times 4 and say that that's kind of a reasonable annualized rate, that kind of thing?

Speaker 2

Yes. It's interesting, Steve. I'll let Rob fill in some of the color. But in general terms, we should start In the following quarter, you should start at least what your sales orders were previously. So if we Sold 3,600 or whatever the number was in Q2, that would be your starts in Q3 because you're rolling over your built to order Sales, but we're also covering inventory sales and we're building a bridge from the fits and starts we had in the second half of last year on sales and Start.

Speaker 2

So our desire would be to start all the built order we can and then supplement it with additional Inventory starts, if you think about it, these would be deliveries in Q1 or August starts on our current cycle time, maybe even into March. And we want to make sure that we're ramping up our volume levels for 2014. Rob, you got any other color you want to throw in?

Speaker 3

I think you did a good job, Jeff. I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 9

Okay, great. So, I guess you're sort of suggesting that we can sort of think about that Starts pace in the quarter as being a good indicator of where your annualized run rate could be if

Speaker 4

you multiply it by 4.

Speaker 9

I guess my next question is, if you have increased or changed your earnest money Requirements on the part of your buyers, I was kind of surprised and pleasantly surprised to hear you talk about the strength of your buyers, the credit metrics And the down payments and so forth. And I was wondering whether or not you were seeing a greater ability to get More earnest money from your buyers when they make when they place an order.

Speaker 2

Steven, it's definitely Something that we had to work on when the downturn hit because we learned through that process that Even though you have a buyer that's emotionally committed to the purchase, when rates ran up

Speaker 4

the way they

Speaker 2

did, the rational side of a payment Outweighed the emotional side of the commitment. So we learned we didn't have large enough deposits and we were actively you want to share with them, Rob, what we're doing these days?

Speaker 3

Sure. Yes. So Steve, we set a minimum at 2%, so 2% of base price. Many of our divisions and it depends on the buyer profile and what The profile of the community is too, but we've got a minimum of 2% of the base price and then it goes up from there and we've got additional deposits For studio and things like that, a minimum of 2 with several divisions that are ranging above that, which gives us a little more coverage and protection.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Matthew Bouley with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 10

Hey, good evening, guys. Thanks for taking the question. So, it sounds like you're closing out of more communities than you're opening. I know you also just spoke about sort of ramping up starts. So I mean is this a situation where you're starting Outright meter sales again, or is there perhaps an opportunity to be a little more aggressive on the pricing side?

Speaker 10

Just any color on Kind of the availability of communities as you roll through this year. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Matt, we'll continue. We use the term we optimize the assets and in that regard, you don't slow it down if you're running out of lots Unless it's irreplaceable, then you may need around sales. A lot of the community count Cadence that we're going through, if you think about it, we put a halt to a lot of land development in the 3rd Q4 last year As we're trying to figure out how deep is the trough and do we need it, have a community down the street, let's slow this one down. So We actually put a pause on land development and then reviewed it community by community by community. And in some cases, communities were put on hold for 6, 7, 8 months So we've now reenergized and we're developing it because the delay in openings.

Speaker 2

So we've got The sellouts accelerated again as the market improves and you'll see our community openings come right back in Q1, Q2 and Q3 next year. So it's not a case of running out of things to do. We'll keep the pace up and keep optimizing in Chesapeake.

Speaker 10

Got it. Okay. Thank you

Speaker 2

for that, Jeff. And then

Speaker 10

second one, I'm curious if you can elaborate a little on, I guess what portion of your sales are including a rate buy down? Is it as simple as to say the spec product It largely carries these incentives, whereas built to order product, there's a lot less of that. Really what I'm getting at is, given your built to order model, the Degree to which you're actually able to kind of insulate homebuyers here from spot mortgage rate volatility. Thank you.

Speaker 2

That's right up your alley.

Speaker 3

Yes. So as far as the financing Concessions or buy downs, we're no longer promoting a specific rate buy down program. We talked about getting our price Right. And we made those adjustments the last half of or back half last part of 2022 and into 2023. So where we do use it, it's applied on an as needed basis For the most part, for those buyers that needed to be able to make the purchase or qualify, and it's just not that significant overall.

Speaker 3

I mean, Our Q2 sales averaged about 1.5 in financing concessions outside of the normal closing cost funds we provide in certain markets to cover items like title or escrow fees. And our goal is just to offer the best base price that we can and provide transparency on that price. So we're Primarily using the financing rate by downs on as needed basis versus artificially inflating the price of the home so it can be incentivized. And Really many of our buyers understand that they can refinance down the road when and if rates fall, but you can never change the price that you pay for the home.

Operator

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of Michael Rehaut with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 8

Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. First, I wanted to circle back to the order pace for the Q3 and obviously Understanding you haven't given guidance for the Q4, but you pointed to a moderation in sales pace, But something less than your normal level of seasonality and still within the 4 to 5 Desired 4 to 5 sales per month. So without necessarily talking specifically to the 4th quarter, 4Q normal seasonality is about a 20% drop off in sales per month versus 3Q.

Speaker 8

Is it fair to kind of anticipate that given today's market where you're kind of Still staying within your build to order discipline, but maybe increasing a little bit of the inventory homes and that's what's Hoping that 3rd quarter sequential decline be less than normal, could we also assuming the market stays where it is, Particularly from a supply standpoint, is it also fair to expect 4Q seasonality to also be a little bit more muted And perhaps even staying closer to the low end of that 4 to 5 per month range that you've described.

Speaker 2

Mike, I think that's an appropriate theory. If market conditions stay like they are today with as little inventory as is out there, We would expect that we would do better than historical in the 4th quarter. My only tweak to your comment is it's not because we have more inventory. It's just our sales pace impact in the Q2 sequentially each month of the quarter we sold more built to order gross Then we did inventory. And it kept tilting that way.

Speaker 2

And I think as our build times come down, you'll see it tilt Even more in that regard. So it's not whether it's an inventory or somebody picking their lot, it's just general market conditions and the desire to be a homeowner.

Speaker 8

Okay. So yes, I appreciate that clarification. I guess I had thought I heard you say earlier in the call that Part of the orders that you're going to be taking is also maybe increasing the inventory homes a little bit to fill the need in the market. Is that no longer what you're saying or you're just saying that it's

Speaker 2

Well, we're talking 2 different things because what I was referring to was starts. And a lot of the starts is to compress the cycle while we're still getting our build times down. So we'll release things as an inventory start and then we sell it by the time the foundation is poured and the buyer still gets to choose everything. But as we look over the balance of the year, the primary focus will be how do we get more built to order sales to continue to fuel our growth in 2024.

Speaker 8

Right.

Operator

Thank you. And the next question comes from the line of Joe Ahlersmeyer with Deutsche Bank, please proceed with your question.

Speaker 11

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Al. Hello.

Speaker 11

Yes. Just a quick one on the starts coming back to yes, coming back to the starts Questions that we've got we've had on the call so far. Is this also maybe part of 2 learnings, one around your success Having repriced and resold the cancellations you saw in 4Q and 1Q, but also learnings from This tight supply chain period of time where having a little bit more visibility on cost relative to what you're selling your homes at Was actually constructive for margin. Is that part of those are those two learnings playing in here with the decision to increase specs?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think We went through a pretty good whipsaw on demand in Q3 and Q4 and then turned the corner into Q1 and Q2. And with the high cancellation rate relative to our historicals, we built up more inventory that we had to cover. And that so you turn your focus to clear the inventory because you have to and It has an impact on your built to order sales. And until you clear it, it slows down starts.

Speaker 2

And so we went through A period where we didn't start enough because we were having to clear out the inventory, which we've now done. And as we look back on Q2, frankly, we were surprised at the strength in demand that we saw. And if we knew on March 1 how strong demand would be, we'd have started more houses in Q2 than we did. So now we're going to catch up here in The Q3, actually over time, we haven't had a lot of cost surprises Relative to what we sold it for and what we build it for, our costs on the homes are all locked when we started. And in a lot of cases, they're locked before we sell it, but we have A good idea of the cost.

Speaker 2

So it wasn't so much a margin control. It was more this whipsaw of demand and starts and how do we keep it all in balance. And as things are normalizing right now for us, we'll go back to pushing more starts.

Speaker 11

Great. And maybe the second one is for more for Rob. There's been a lot of talk about perhaps increasing energy efficiency of homes through Regulating the mortgage market, basically requiring that homes underwritten with a mortgage underwritten for FHA loans are backed by the GSEs would have to have been built to 2021 Energy Efficiency Code. Wondering how big of a lift that would be Nationally for you guys to have to adhere to the 21 code just based on where your code compliance is nationally at this point?

Speaker 3

I think far less for us than probably some of our competitors. I mean, we've been so focused on energy efficiency For such a long time here that I don't think we've got a lot of heavy lifting to do to get to that point. It's something that we're still analyzing. Each of our markets are on Different code cycles and all that to really understand what the impact is, but we're our HERS scores and The ratings that we've been building to, I think, are already very efficient. So I don't think it's a big leap for us To take a next step there.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Truman Patterson with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 12

Hey, good evening guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First, I wanted to Understand kind of the cadence of the construction, the reduced construction costs. I believe in fiscal 1, 2 year construction cycle times were about 8 months, Fiscal 2Q, they're about 7 months. You mentioned last quarter that costs direct Construction costs were down about $19,000 from the peak.

Speaker 12

And I think you said they're down another $4,000 this quarter. To me, I would expect a lot of the cost savings to kind of flow through by the Q4 of this year, But hoping you all can help us think through some of the timing of that.

Speaker 2

Yes. We'll You want me to

Speaker 3

take that or you, Jeff?

Speaker 2

No, I was going to say, hey, Ron, why don't you take that?

Speaker 3

Okay. A lot of it depends on the timing. I mean, if you're talking about the peak and I believe it was August, We said last quarter we've come down $19,000 from that, but we're also working through houses during that point in time that had It was a challenging market, so challenged on sales price and rate buy downs and things like that. As far as the additional incremental $4,000 That's actually where we ended up in May. So we'll see some benefit of that through the starts that we got in May.

Speaker 3

We'll see a bigger impact once we get into Q1 and Q2 of next year.

Speaker 12

Okay, okay.

Speaker 4

Got you.

Speaker 3

Now cycle times accelerate more, obviously, we'll see it faster and We're focused on that, but if we can bring cycle times down another 30 to 45 days, the better and bigger impact we'll have in Q4.

Speaker 12

Okay. Okay, perfect. And then, just wanted to follow-up on your ending community count being roughly flat Year over year, it's down a little bit from the 2nd quarter levels. Rightfully so, you guys pulled back on land investment given everything that's occurred over the past 12 months. But Jeff, I believe you mentioned that community count should start to grow again sequentially in 1Q and 2Q.

Speaker 12

I'm just trying to understand, Do you still expect actual growth throughout 2024 year over year basis? Do you think Some opportunity for a decline or potential to refill your pipeline with some finished lot deals moving through the year to kind of backfill. I'm just trying to understand the puts and the takes here.

Speaker 2

Sure. One of the variables, Truman, as you know, is how quickly things can sell out. And if you have a community with 6 left to sell, okay, We count them as sold out if there's less than 5 to sell. And so you can move through communities that had 6 left to sell and you get down to 5 and You wiped the community off. So that and that can move around from quarter to quarter from where we project versus where we end up.

Speaker 2

What I was referring to on the opening side is we expect a ramp up in openings in 2024. Yes. We haven't guided on community count, but we do expect to grow the business. We're positioned to grow the business and that's our goal Would be to grow the business in 2024. But we'll get into that more in the typically, we give a first look at that on our next quarter call.

Operator

And our final question of the day comes from Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 2

Thank

Speaker 13

This is Charles Perron in for Susan and congrats on the strong results as well. I guess my first question is going back to the capital You repurchased 2,200,000 shares in the quarter on top of obviously the dividend and your balance sheet is in probably the best shape it has been in a really long time. Can you maybe provide a sense of how you see capital allocation between replacing the land pipeline, investing in the communities versus returning my shareholders as we look forward?

Speaker 4

Sure. As we often talk, we view our capital allocation The policy is being balanced. Ideally, we'd like to invest as much as possible back in the business and Okay. The growth and returns and everything else that that does for you. And at the same time, we've been balancing that with return of cash To shareholders, like I said in the prepared remarks, we base those purchases off a number of factors And most of them have been very favorable for the past several quarters and allowed us to really jump in and buy some stock back.

Speaker 4

So We do intend to continue to buy shares. We mentioned it a couple of times in the prepared remarks and we'll meter the amount and the timing of that based

Speaker 2

on all the other factors that we mentioned. But as you said, we're

Speaker 4

really pleased with the As you said, we're really pleased

Speaker 3

with the current balance sheet.

Speaker 4

It's rock Right now and we're very pleased with the amount of cash the business is spinning off. And on top of where we've been at on that, As these build times continue to compress, we see even further opportunity for cash and we intend to deploy that cash. We'll deploy it either in the form of reinvesting in the business or preference. And at the same time, we believe we'll have the bandwidth to continue to buy shares at the Same

Speaker 13

time. Got it. No, that's helpful. And Jeff, you've touched this in your prepared remarks as a little bit, but can you talk through the progress you've made Some of the markets you recently reentered, like Boise and Charlotte, but also at the same time, maybe If you can talk about the potential to enter new markets, how you see the support chain going forward versus further penetrating the existing locations you guys are in?

Speaker 2

Sure. Well, we've done a few bolt ons, as I call it, over the last few years. And I'd start with Seattle, where I believe we entered it 5 years ago. We're now a top 5 builder and growing and it's very profitable and quite a success story for us in our West region. We always look at opportunities out there, private builders, what can we do to grow through acquisitions.

Speaker 2

At the same time, if you go into novo, it's a little less expensive and you may have to learn some things along the way, but our business model is pretty So we entered Boise. Boise was one of the first markets to correct When interest rates ran up last year, it's now adjusted. We're selling well. We have few communities under development in addition to the one that's open today and it's Doing just fine. In Charlotte, we've opened a couple of communities that are selling well.

Speaker 2

We have many more that are about to open and You touched on it. We were in Charlotte at one time and we've got as large as 1,000 units a year in Charlotte. So it's a market we know and we like and it's a Nice compliment to Lolly. And those are both startups and we've been able to carry the overhead, Still have solid SG and A and have been able to cover the start up costs and now we're positioned to be real contributors To our business, as we look ahead, the best way to grow is in your served markets And we have a growth target in every city for where we want to get to and it's at least the top 3 builder. Once you're there, We want to get to the number one spot and everybody has targets and there isn't a single market we're in today where we think we've maximized Our opportunity, so our primary focus long winded answer, but our primary focus going forward for now will be to continue to push the envelope In the 39 cities that we're in, where there's a lot of upside from our current scale.

Speaker 2

So we like the opportunities and how we're positioned and where we're headed.

Operator

Thank you, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the question and answer session. And this also concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may now

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