Paul J. Romanowski
President and Chief Executive Officer at D.R. Horton
Thank you, Jessica, and good morning. I'm pleased to also be joined on this call by Mike Murray, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Bill Wheat, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The D.R. Horton team produced solid results to finish the year, highlighted by consolidated pre-tax income of $1.7 billion on revenues of $10 billion with a pre-tax profit margin of 17.1%. Earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter were $3.92. For the year, earnings per diluted share increased 4% to $14.34 and our consolidated pre-tax income was $6.3 billion on revenues of $36.8 billion with a pre-tax profit margin of 17.1%.
Our home building pre-tax return on inventory for the year was 27.8%, return on equity was 19.9% and return on assets was 13.9%. Our return on assets ranks in the top 25% of all S&P 500 companies for the past three-, five- and 10-year periods. Our consolidated cash flow from operations for 2024 was $2.2 billion and we returned all of the cash we generated this year to shareholders through repurchases and dividends. Our fiscal 2024 share distributions increased by approximately $700 million or 44%, from the prior year.
Over the past five years, we have generated $9 billion of cash flow from operations and we have reduced our outstanding share count by 12%. For the quarter, despite continued affordability challenges and competitive market conditions, our net sales orders increased slightly from the prior year. Our sales pace was in line with normal seasonality from the third to fourth quarter, but below our expectations. While mortgage rates have decreased from their highs earlier this year, many potential homebuyers expect rates to be lower in 2025. We believe that the volatility of rates, combined with general uncertainty during the election season, is causing some buyers to stay on the sidelines in the near term.
To help spur demand and address affordability, we are continuing to use incentives such as mortgage rate buy-downs and we have continued to start and sell more of our smaller floor plans. With 46% of fourth quarter closings also sold in the same quarter, our sales, incentive levels and gross margin are generally representative of current market conditions. We typically experience seasonally slower demand during the fall and our tenured local operators seek to find the right balance of sales pace, pricing and incentives in each community that will best position our returns and inventory levels before we enter the spring.
For the full year of fiscal 2025, our homebuilding volume and profit margins will largely be dependent on the strength of the upcoming spring selling season. Overall, the demographic supporting housing demand are favorable, and we continue to see a generally limited supply of both new and existing homes at affordable price points in addition to a limited supply of finished lots available for new home construction.
With our focus on affordable product offerings, 37,400 homes in inventory, continued improvement in our construction cycle times and adequate finished lots available on our pipeline, we are well positioned for fiscal 2025. We remain focused on enhancing the capital efficiency of all of our operations to produce consistent, sustainable returns and cash flows so that we can return more capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. Mike?