Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE:FOR) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dan Bartok: Renegotiating, we’re seeing builders come to us looking for some flexibility with terms, not so much pricing, but maybe their takedown. So pricing right now has held pretty steady. The other thing that we mentioned is $90,100 for an ASP, it puts us in a sweet spot we think for affordable pricing where builders want to be with highest demand is in the marketplace. So we had not seen that yet on the pricing side, but we have that builders come back to us and want to talk about terms.

Katie Smith: This is Dave. I’d add on to that too, when a builder comes to us and wants to renegotiate a takedown, we’re typically getting something in return for that. So whether it be a larger earnest money deposit or a higher escalator on those lots. So there is a little bit of an offset, as far as price whenever we do decide to extend a takedown schedule.

Asher Sohnen: Great. That’s really helpful. And then just sort of following up on that Dan, so as you sort of write up new contracts for lots that are sort of coming through the pipeline that haven’t been contracted yet. What has pricing look like trending there? Is it sort of still stable, kind of, following underlying land prices not yet coming down? Or are you starting to have to give up a little bit price there?

Dan Bartok: I think we look at that project-by-project, market-by-market. They all have unique characteristics. So when we set pricing for finished lots, we’re looking at all the intangibles for each market, but right now our pricing is up steady.

Asher Sohnen: Great. That’s good to hear and very helpful. Thank you, I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Our next question is from Mike Rehaut with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Doug Wardlaw: Hi guys, Doug Wardlaw on for Mike. Last quarter you guys mentioned that you weren’t any closer to any potential impairments after the quarter. And I was just curious after this most recent quarter of that mindset has changed? And if not, how do you envision the rest of the year going in terms of maybe getting to, kind of, the warnings on a potential impairment?

Dan Bartok: Well, we regularly review and monitor projects for indicators of impairment. We had no impairments for the quarter. We did write-off some due diligence costs and earnest money related to deals that we decided not to close on. At this point, as Mark said, our margins and our pricing has held up pretty well. We’ve seen a little bit of compression in margin, which we expected. Probably a little bit early to say what to expect for the rest of the year that will be in a more contingent on general market conditions and what happens with rates. But at this point, we don’t see widespread impairments. We may have isolated impairments as we go through the year, but we don’t see it at this point on a widespread basis.

Doug Wardlaw: Great, thanks. And with that, I’m just following up on what you said in terms of margins. So relative to your expectations at the end of 4Q, you haven’t seen more and less of the margin compression you expected?