Hovnanian’s headquarters overlooking the Navesink River at Maple Cove. (Click to enlarge)
The misery isn’t over at Red Bank-based national homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises, despite a brief return to the black two quarters back.
The company reported a net loss of $28.6 million in its second fiscal quarter, which ended April 30, compared with $118.6 million loss a year earlier.
In its first quarter, the company was profitable for the first time after more than four years of losses. Hovnanian has now lost money in 14 of the last 15 quarters.
From a Reuters report:
Charges on land losing its value were $1.2 million this quarter compared with $310.2 million last year.
But revenue fell to $318.6 million from $398 million as home sales fell 19 percent to 1,118 homes. Housing and the broader economy started to make a tentative climb out of recession last year, but unemployment hovers at around 10 percent.
Despite the dip in revenue, Hovnanian sold more homes than it had projected internally due to the federal homebuyer tax credit, Chief Executive Ara Hovnanian said in a statement.
