A consistent theme is emerging from quarterly public builder earnings calls: The selling environment is slower than anticipated and economic uncertainty is weakening consumer sentiment.
Three more public builders—LGI Homes, Beazer Homes, and Green Brick Partners—reported financial results during the week of April 28, largely echoing the sentiments shared by public companies who reported results the week prior.
While Beazer Homes and Green Brick Partners reported increases in quarterly closings, both builders noted the challenging operating conditions and expressed uncertainty about the future impact of tariffs on their businesses. LGI Homes reiterated its 2025 guidance of closings growth between 1% and 14% despite the muted sales results in the first three months of the year.
Quarterly Results By the Numbers
- LGI Homes: 996 home closings at an average sales price of $352,831, generating revenue of $351.4 million. A year ago, the builder closed 1,083 homes generating $390.9 million in revenue. Net orders in the period of 1,437 represented a 21% decrease from the first quarter of 2024. Profit in the quarter decreased to $4.0 million from $17.0 million a year ago.
- Beazer Homes: Home building revenue of $556.0 million on 1,079 home closings, increases of 3.2% and 3.4% on a year-over-year basis, respectively. Net new orders decreased 15.5% to 1,098, driven by a 27.1% decline in orders per community per month.
- Green Brick Partners: Home closing revenue of $495 million on 910 closings, increases of 11.7% and 10.8% compared to the same period a year ago, respectively. Net new orders increased 3.3% to 1,106 while the builder’s monthly absorption rate per community decreased 7.0% year-over-year to 10.6.
What They’re Saying: On Market Conditions
“As we noted in our last call, higher mortgage rates in October and November weighed on our year-end backlog, and with rates rising further in January, the first quarter got off to a slow start. While February brought some improvement, the overall trend remained muted. However, in March, the pace materially improved, signaling a late start to spring sales activity, just as the quarter ended.”—Eric Lipar, chairman and CEO, LGI Homes
“While current market conditions are challenging, constrained by affordability and weak consumer sentiment, we remain optimistic about the need for a growing number of new homes in the years ahead. Growth in the prime home buying demographic groups and a structural housing deficit in the markets we serve both underpin our confidence in new home demand.”—Allan Merrill, chairman and CEO, Beazer Homes
“We experienced a healthy spring selling season evidencing more typical seasonality, which aligned with our first quarter expectations. Despite a more challenging economic environment, overall incentives for new orders increased only 30 basis points sequentially from 6.4% of sales price in Q4 2025 to 6.7% in Q1 2025. Moreover, incentive levels declined steadily throughout the quarter.”—Jim Brickman, CEO, Green Brick Partners
What They’re Saying: On Tariffs and Costs
“We continue to monitor tariffs and potential impacts that higher costs could have on margins. Beginning in March, we began receiving notices of price increases from some suppliers related to tariffs imposed to date, particularly those utilizing valued-added components from China. With this in mind, we are proactively trimming our full-year gross margin expectations by 150 basis points at the low end and 100 basis points at the high end of our prior range to account for these additional costs and the potential for additional market uncertainty over the coming quarters.”—Lipar, LGI Homes
“We haven’t really seen much impact from [tariffs]. We’ve have some conversations. I think it plays out as a 2026 story more than a 2025 [story]. Certainly, for us, we’re a September year-end company, the last homes that will be in our fiscal year will start here in the next 30 days. And at this point, there really isn’t anything there. There could be, I don’t know all of the ways that those inputs could change. But to date, we haven’t really seen any impact from that in our numbers.”—Merrill, Beazer Homes
“While the duration and extent of the impact from tariffs remains unclear, we are diligently monitoring the market conditions and working closely with our entirely supply chain regarding recent economic developments and approaches to mitigate any potential impact of the tariffs. Recognizing the heightened importance of liquidity in the current period of economic uncertainty and volatility, Green Brick ended the quarter with $103 million in cash, and we currently have $330 million in available capacity on our revolving credit facility.”—Brickman, Green Brick Partners
