Robert Toll Quotations

Selling homes this first quarter was certainly more difficult than one year ago.

Since Katrina, instead of going up $5,000 or $10,000 every week or two, we have been limited to no price increases or very limited price increases,

Since Hurricane Katrina in early September, we have observed buyers taking longer to make their purchasing decision. We attribute this change to the significant decline in consumer confidence in the last two months that was precipitated by the hurricanes and their aftermath, and to record gas prices. It appears we may be entering a period of more moderate home price increases, more typical of the past decade than the past two years.

Last time I saw 6 percent was 1966, except for the last couple of years. If rates go to 7.5 percent, we'll take it. We can still do a whole lot of business.

Overcoming tight labor markets in many regions and the hurricanes' impact in the southeast, we surpassed our expectations for fourth quarter home deliveries. We produced over $2bn in revenues this quarter, which exceeded our entire year's production just five years ago.

What you see is the bureaucracy doing the bidding of the representatives, which are doing the bidding of the electorate,

The shortage of selling communities, coupled with some softening of demand in a number of markets, negatively impacted our contract results. It appears we may be entering a period of more moderate home price increases, more typical of the past decade than the past two years.

Speculative demand has ceased, and speculators are now putting their homes back on the market.

Demand at our communities, which began to soften in early September, now appears to be improving, although demand pressure from speculators has certainly passed.

Considering that we began this fiscal year impacted by a national recession and the tragedies of Sept. 11, fiscal 2002 has certainly exceeded our expectations.,

If you had an overall depressed market, you could not have that kind of phenomenon.

In 2005, demand for new homes in many markets was propelled to unsustainable levels by speculative buying. We are now on the other side of that slope. Speculative demand has ceased and speculators are now putting their homes back on the market.

All of a sudden, the ads in the paper show special mortgage deals, special incentives. That's an absolute indicator that the market has softened.