Residential home builder Pulte Homes reported an $85.7 million loss for the first quarter, or a loss of 33 cents per share. The company earned a profit of $262.2 million, or $1.01 per share in the same quarter last year.
Analysts were expecting a loss of 37 cents per share.
"Overall, the homebuilding environment remained challenging during the first quarter of 2007," Pulte CEO Richard Dugas said in a statement after the company's report. "During this period of market weakness, Pulte continues to focus on maintaining a healthy balance sheet and adjusting our house and land inventory levels to better match current market conditions," Dugas said.
Also in the housing sector, Ryland Group reported a first-quarter loss of $24.4 million, or 58 cents per share, down from a profit of $90 million, or $1.86 per share last year, and worse than Wall Street's estimate for a loss of 47 cents per share.
The builder said new orders dropped nearly 26% in the first quarter to 2,989 units.
Earlier this week, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales had plummeted 8.4% in March, the biggest drop in 18 years. And yesterday, the Commerce Department said sales of new homes rose 2.6% in March which was below economists' expectations.
