| REAL ESTATE AND CAPITALIZED INTEREST |
NOTE 2 — REAL ESTATE AND CAPITALIZED INTEREST
Real estate consists of the following (in thousands):
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December 31, 2013 |
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December 31, 2012 |
Homes under contract under construction (1) |
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$ |
262,633 |
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$ |
192,948 |
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Unsold homes, completed and under construction (1) |
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147,889 |
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107,466 |
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Model homes (1) |
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81,541 |
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62,411 |
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Finished home sites and home sites under development |
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813,135 |
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634,106 |
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Land held for development (2) |
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52,100 |
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56,118 |
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Land held for sale |
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19,112 |
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21,650 |
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Communities in mothball status (3) |
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28,889 |
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38,488 |
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$ |
1,405,299 |
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$ |
1,113,187 |
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(1) |
Includes the allocated land and land development costs associated with each lot for these homes. |
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(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. |
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(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 December 31, 2013, we had five mothballed communities with a carrying value of $26.1 million in our West Region and one mothballed community with a carrying value of $2.8 million in our Central Region. During 2013, we placed one additional community into mothball status and removed five communities totaling $9.6 million out of 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.
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As previously noted, in accordance with ASC 360-10, each of our land inventory and related real estate assets is reviewed for recoverability when impairment indicators are present, as our inventory is considered “long-lived” in accordance with GAAP. Due to the current environment, we evaluate all of our real estate assets for impairment on a quarterly basis. ASC 360-10 requires impairment charges to be recorded if the asset is not deemed recoverable and the fair value of such asset is less than its carrying amounts. Our determination of fair value is based on projections and estimates. We also evaluate alternative product offerings in communities where impairment indicators are present and other strategies for the land exist, such as selling or holding the land for sale. Based on these reviews of all our communities, we recorded $1.0 million, $2.0 million, and $15.3 million in real-estate impairment charges during the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively.
In the latter part of 2011, we announced our intent to wind-down operations in the Las Vegas, Nevada market. We do not have any remaining operations in Nevada as of December 31, 2013; however, we still own 174 lots that we are marketing for sale or have mothballed. The carrying value of those lots was $11.8 million as of December 31, 2013.
Subject to sufficient qualifying assets, we capitalize our development period interest costs incurred in connection with the development and construction of real estate. Capitalized interest is allocated to active real estate when incurred and charged to cost of closings when the related property is delivered. A summary of our capitalized interest is as follows (in thousands):
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Years Ended December 31, |
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2013 |
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2012 |
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2011 |
Capitalized interest, beginning of year |
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$ |
21,600 |
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$ |
14,810 |
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$ |
11,679 |
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Interest incurred |
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51,152 |
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46,135 |
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43,393 |
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Interest expensed |
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(15,092 |
) |
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(24,244 |
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(30,399 |
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Interest amortized to cost of home and land closings |
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(24,668 |
) |
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(15,101 |
) |
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(9,863 |
) |
Capitalized interest, end of year (1) |
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$ |
32,992 |
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$ |
21,600 |
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$ |
14,810 |
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(1) |
Approximately $511,000, $539,000, and $750,000 of the capitalized interest is related to our joint venture investments and is a component of “Investments in unconsolidated entities” in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 respectively.
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