Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Toll Brothers
Search every verified Martin Connor interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Martin Connor, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Toll Brothers, stated in 2011 and 2012 that the housing market was recovering. He said in 2012 that general economic news was trending upward, which he said boded well for housing, and that the spring selling season would be telling. Connor described the New York metro area as the company's hottest market, with high-rise communities in Hoboken, Manhattan, and Brooklyn performing well. He also said Toll Brothers was actively seeking land opportunities in California. Connor said in 2011 that the government should "step back and let housing heal itself," arguing that a previous tax credit had not helped and may have muddied the picture. He noted that Toll Brothers had plenty of capital and was seeking places to deploy it, and that the company was pleased to be at a break-even basis after the downturn. Connor described Toll Brothers' buyers as having solid credit, with average FICO scores in the mid-650s and 30% down payments, and said 18% of buyers paid cash.
“The general economic news is trending upward which bodes well for the housing market right now. One of the key areas that we look for is the spring selling season and that's going to be telling from now until the end of the year.”
“It's a great time to buy a house with continued low mortgage rates and near all-time high affordability. We hope confidence is increasing to such an extent that people will be willing to make that purchase.”
“The banks do have a significant role in thawing out credit and helping people achieve the American dream. At Toll Brothers, our buyers have solid credit with average FICO scores in the mid 650s, put on average 30% down as a down payment, and leverage about 70% of the house purchase.”
“We may see a reversion of home ownership rates back to the mid to lower 60% range from the historical upper 60% due to the issues we've gone through in the housing downturn.”
“The housing industry is currently producing about 500,000 homes annually, while the norm is between 1.6 and 1.8 million, with household formations expected to be in the 1.5 to 1.6 million range for the next decade. This imbalance suggests a recovery is underway or imminent.”
“Phoenix and Las Vegas have a long slow road to recovery due to significant negative equity and a backlog of foreclosures that need to work through the pipeline.”
“We have purchased some land in Florida during 2010 and continue to look for opportunities. The sun will continue to shine in Florida and people will continue to want to retire there, so we believe there are good opportunities.”
“California is a market we are very much interested in. We are actively seeking opportunities to buy land there and would like to have more communities. We think it's on the road to recovery from a housing perspective.”
“The New York metro area is our hottest market right now with high-rise communities in Hoboken, Manhattan, and Brooklyn doing very well. The suburban New York and New Jersey marketplace never went back as far as other places and is very solid for us currently.”
“It's a great time for people to buy a home. Affordability is near all-time highs, mortgage rates are near all-time lows, and there are bargains out there for the consumer. It's still part of the American dream to own your home.”
“We have plenty of capital and we need to find the right places to deploy it. On top of that, we're trying to get back to profitability; we're pleased to be at a break-even basis based on where we've come from and what we've gone through, but long term we got to get the profitability.”
“We've improved our margins; they moved up 400 points year-over-year for the period end at 13.1%. Real margin improvements are going to come from unit sales growth, which will also come with some pricing power and resulting average sales price.”
“Our buyers continue to have access to mortgages at unheard of pricing right now; these are historically low rates and a number of people are taking advantage of them. There are some issues associated with the equity you have in your home, and traditionally that equity has been rolled into the next purchase, but we have...”
“All our buyers actually pay cash; some of them just finance that cash with a mortgage. From our perspective, cash is cash. While a quick delivery home might be discounted a little bit more to move it off our balance sheet, a build-to-order home is built exactly to your catered specifications.”
“I think get out of the way is part of the equation. They tried the tax credit last year; I don't think it hurt but I'm not sure it helped and it may have muddied the picture a little bit by moving demand around and it didn't create jobs.”
Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Martin Connor, chief financial officer at Toll Brothers Inc., talks about the outlook for the U.S. housing market.
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Martin Connor, chief financial officer of Toll Brothers Inc., talks about the state of the housing market.
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