Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Real Estate and Capitalized Interest (Tables)

v2.4.0.6
Real Estate and Capitalized Interest (Tables)
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Inventory Disclosure [Abstract]  
Real estate properties
 
 
At September 30, 2012
 
At December 31, 2011
Homes under contract under construction (1)
$
205,616

 
$
101,445

Unsold homes, completed and under construction (1)
98,354

 
97,246

Model homes (1)
55,853

 
49,892

Finished home sites and home sites under development
524,842

 
441,242

Land held for development (2)
54,981

 
55,143

Land held for sale
24,619

 
29,908

Communities in mothball status (3)
40,560

 
40,549

 
$
1,004,825

 
$
815,425

 
(1)
Includes the allocated land and land development costs associated with each lot for these homes.
(2)
Land held for development primarily reflects land and land development costs related to land where development activity is not currently underway but is expected to begin in the future. In these cases, we may have chosen not to currently develop certain land holdings as they typically represent a portion of a large land parcel that we plan to build out over several years.
(3)
Represents communities where we have decided to cease operations (mothball) as we have determined that their economic performance would be maximized by deferring development. In the future, some of these communities may be re-opened while others may be sold to third parties. If we deem our carrying value to not be fully recoverable, we adjust our carrying value for these assets to fair value at the time they are placed into mothball status. As of September 30, 2012, we had three mothballed communities with a carrying value of $11.2 million in our West Region and eight mothballed communities with a carrying value of $29.4 million in our Central Region. During the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we did not place any additional communities into mothball status. We do not capitalize interest for such mothballed assets, and all ongoing costs of land ownership (i.e. property taxes, homeowner association dues, etc.) are also expensed as incurred.
Real-estate and joint venture impairment charges
 
Three Months Ended
 
Nine Months Ended
 
September 30,
 
September 30,
 
2012
 
2011
 
2012
 
2011
Terminated option/purchase contracts and related pre-acquisition costs:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
West
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

Central
263

 
98

 
346

 
100

East

 

 

 

Total
$
263

 
$
98

 
$
346

 
$
100

Real estate inventory impairments (1):
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
West
$
42

 
$
295

 
$
284

 
$
552

Central
54

 
468

 
197

 
1,235

East
58

 
59

 
77

 
287

Total
$
154

 
$
822

 
$
558

 
$
2,074

Impairments of land held for sale:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
West
$

 
$

 
$
669

 
$

Central

 
127

 

 
127

East

 

 

 

Total
$

 
$
127

 
$
669

 
$
127

Total impairments:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
West
$
42

 
$
295

 
$
953

 
$
552

Central
317

 
693

 
543

 
1,462

East
58

 
59

 
77

 
287

Total
$
417

 
$
1,047

 
$
1,573

 
$
2,301

 
(1)
Included in the real estate inventory impairments are impairments of individual homes in a community where the underlying community was not also impaired, as follows (in thousands):

 
Three Months Ended
 
Nine Months Ended
 
September 30,
 
September 30,
 
2012
 
2011
 
2012
 
2011
Individual home impairments:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
West
$
42

 
$
166

 
$
284

 
$
423

Central
54

 
239

 
197

 
695

East
58

 
59

 
77

 
287

Total
$
154

 
$
464

 
$
558

 
$
1,405

Number of communities with real estate inventory impairments & fair value of these communities
 
Three Months Ended September 30, 2011
 
Number of
Communities
Impaired
 
Impairment Charges
 
Fair Value of Communities Impaired
(Carrying Value less Impairments)
West
1

 
$
129

 
2,501

Central
4

 
229

 
6,894

East

 

 
N/A

Total
5

 
$
358

 
$
9,395


 
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2011
 
Number of
Communities
Impaired
 
Impairment Charges
 
Fair Value of Communities Impaired
(Carrying Value less Impairments)
West
1

 
$
129

 
2,501

Central
6

 
540

 
13,721

East

 

 
N/A

Total
7

 
$
669

 
$
16,222

Summary of capitalized interest
 
Three Months Ended
 
Nine Months Ended
 
September 30,
 
September 30,
 
2012
 
2011
 
2012
 
2011
Capitalized interest, beginning of period
$
17,836

 
$
13,205

 
$
14,810

 
$
11,679

Interest incurred
11,654

 
10,848

 
33,819

 
32,545

Interest expensed
(5,009
)
 
(7,517
)
 
(18,718
)
 
(23,036
)
Interest amortized to cost of home, land closings and impairments
(4,296
)
 
(2,421
)
 
(9,726
)
 
(7,073
)
Capitalized interest, end of period (1)
$
20,185

 
$
14,115

 
$
20,185

 
$
14,115

 
(1)
Approximately $750,000 of the capitalized interest is related to our joint venture investments and is a component of “Investments in unconsolidated entities” on our consolidated balance sheets as of September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011.