霍頓房屋 (DHI) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call for D.R. Horton, America's Builder, the largest builder in the United States.

早上好，歡迎參加 D.R. 2021 年第四季度收益電話會議。 Horton, America's Builder，美國最大的建築商。

I will now turn the call over to Jessica Hansen, Vice President of Investor Relations for D.R. Horton.

我現在將把電話轉給 D.R. 投資者關係副總裁 Jessica Hansen。霍頓。

Thank you, Tom, and good morning. Welcome to our call to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 financial results. Before we get started, today's call includes comments that constitute forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although D.R. Horton believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different.

謝謝你，湯姆，早上好。歡迎致電我們討論我們的第四季度和 2021 財年財務業績。在我們開始之前，今天的電話會議包括構成前瞻性陳述的評論，這些陳述由 1995 年的私人證券訴訟改革法案定義。儘管 D.R.霍頓認為任何此類陳述均基於合理假設，無法保證實際結果不會有重大差異。

All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to D.R. Horton on the date of this conference call, and D.R. Horton does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Additional information about factors that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in D.R. Horton's annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, all of which are or will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

所有前瞻性陳述均基於 D.R. 可獲得的信息。霍頓在本次電話會議的日期，以及 D.R.霍頓不承擔任何公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務。有關可能導致性能發生重大變化的因素的其他信息包含在 D.R.霍頓的 10-K 表格年度報告和隨後的 10-Q 表格報告，所有這些都已或將提交給美國證券交易委員會。

This morning's earnings release can be found on our website at investors.drhorton.com, and we plan to file our 10-K towards the end of next week. As referenced in our press release, we realigned the aggregation of our homebuilding operating segments into 6 new reportable segments this quarter to better allocate our homebuilding operating segments across our geographic reporting regions. As a result, in addition to our standard updated investor and supplementary data presentations, we will also be posting to our Investor Relations site 3 years of quarterly sales, closings, backlog, homes and lock data that conforms to our new geographic region presentation. All of this can be found at investor.drhorton.com on the Presentations section under News and Events for your reference.

今天上午的收益發布可以在我們的網站 investors.drhorton.com 上找到，我們計劃在下週末提交我們的 10-K。正如我們的新聞稿所述，本季度我們將住宅建築運營部門的匯總重新調整為 6 個新的可報告部門，以更好地在我們的地理報告區域中分配我們的住宅建築運營部門。因此，除了我們標準的更新投資者和補充數據演示之外，我們還將在我們的投資者關係網站上發布符合我們新地理區域演示的 3 年季度銷售、關閉、積壓、房屋和鎖數據。所有這些都可以在 investor.drhorton.com 上的新聞和事件下的演示部分找到，供您參考。

Now I will turn the call over to David Auld, our President and CEO.

現在我將把電話轉給我們的總裁兼首席執行官大衛奧爾德。

Thank you, Jessica, and good morning. I am pleased to also be joined on this call by Mike Murray, our Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer; and Bill Wheat, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today, we also have Paul Romanowski with us, who was recently promoted to Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer. Paul has been with D.R. Horton since 1999, serving as our regional Florida -- as our Florida South Division President for 15 years, and most recently, as our Florida region President for 7 years.

謝謝你，傑西卡，早上好。我很高興我們的執行副總裁兼聯席首席運營官 Mike Murray 也加入了這次電話會議；和我們的執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Bill Wheat。今天，我們還有 Paul Romanowski，他最近晉升為執行副總裁兼聯席首席運營官。保羅一直在 D.R.霍頓自 1999 年以來一直擔任我們佛羅里達州的區域總裁，擔任了 15 年的佛羅里達州南部分部總裁，最近擔任了 7 年的佛羅里達州區域總裁。

I'd like to take a brief moment to have Paul introduce himself before we get started. Paul?

在我們開始之前，我想花點時間讓 Paul 自我介紹一下。保羅？

Thank you, David, and hello, everyone. I'm excited for the opportunity to serve in my new role on the D.R. Horton management team, and I look forward to getting to know our investors and analysts in the coming year.

謝謝你，大衛，大家好。我很高興有機會在 D.R. 擔任我的新角色。霍頓管理團隊，我期待在來年結識我們的投資者和分析師。

Thank you, Paul. Given that Paul is new to his role, he will not be an active participant today, but we are glad to have him with us and believe his extensive homebuilding experience will strengthen our executive team.

謝謝你，保羅。鑑於保羅是新角色，他今天不會積極參與，但我們很高興他和我們在一起，相信他豐富的房屋建築經驗將加強我們的執行團隊。

D.R. Horton team finished the year with a strong fourth quarter, which included a 63% increase in consolidated pretax income to $1.7 billion and a 27% increase in revenue to $8.1 billion. Our pretax profit margin for the quarter improved 480 basis points to 21.3% and our earnings per diluted share increased 65% to $3.70.

博士霍頓團隊以強勁的第四季度結束了這一年，其中綜合稅前收入增長 63% 至 17 億美元，收入增長 27% 至 81 億美元。我們本季度的稅前利潤率提高了 480 個基點，達到 21.3%，攤薄後每股收益增加了 65%，達到 3.70 美元。

For the year, consolidated pretax income increased 80% to $5.4 billion on a $27.8 billion of revenue. Our pretax profit margin for the year improved 460 basis points to 19.3%, and our earnings per diluted share increased 78% to $11.41. We closed a record 81,965 homes this year, an increase of over 16,500 homes or 25% from last year, while also achieving a historical low homebuilding SG&A percentage of 7.3%.

全年，綜合稅前收入增長 80%，達到 54 億美元，收入為 278 億美元。我們今年的稅前利潤率提高了 460 個基點，達到 19.3%，攤薄後每股收益增加了 78%，達到 11.41 美元。我們今年關閉了創紀錄的 81,965 套房屋，比去年增加了 16,500 多套或 25%，同時也實現了歷史最低的房屋建築 SG&A 百分比 7.3%。

Our homebuilding return on inventory was 37.9% and our return on equity was 31.6%. These results reflect our experienced teams and their production capabilities. Our ability to leverage D.R. Horton scale across our broad geographic footprint and our product positioning to offer homes at affordable price points across multiple brands. Our homebuilding cash flow from operations for 2021 was $1.2 billion. Over the past 5 years, we have generated $5.9 billion of cash flow from homebuilding operations, while growing our consolidated revenues by 128% and our earnings per share by 383%.

我們的房屋建築庫存回報率為 37.9%，股本回報率為 31.6%。這些結果反映了我們經驗豐富的團隊及其生產能力。我們利用 D.R. 的能力Horton 跨越我們廣泛的地理足跡和我們的產品定位，以跨多個品牌以可承受的價格點提供房屋。我們 2021 年的房屋建築運營現金流為 12 億美元。在過去 5 年中，我們從住宅建築業務中產生了 59 億美元的現金流，同時我們的綜合收入增長了 128%，每股收益增長了 383%。

During this time, we also more than doubled our book value per share, reduced our homebuilding leverage under 20%, and increased our homebuilding liquidity by $2.8 billion, all while significantly increasing our returns on inventory and equity.

在此期間，我們的每股賬面價值也翻了一番多，將房屋建築槓桿率降低到 20% 以下，並將房屋建築流動性增加了 28 億美元，同時顯著提高了我們的存貨和股權回報率。

Housing market conditions remain very robust, and we are focused on maximizing returns and increasing our market share further. However, there are still significant challenges in the supply chain, including shortages in certain building materials and tightness in the labor market. As a result, we continued restricting our home sales pace during the fourth quarter by selling homes later in the construction cycle to align with our production levels and better ensure certainty of home closing date for our homebuyers.

房地產市場狀況仍然非常強勁，我們專注於最大化回報並進一步增加我們的市場份額。然而，供應鏈仍然面臨重大挑戰，包括某些建築材料短缺和勞動力市場緊張。因此，我們在第四季度繼續限制我們的房屋銷售速度，在施工週期的後期出售房屋，以與我們的生產水平保持一致，並更好地確保購房者的房屋交割日期的確定性。

We expect to work through the supply chain challenges and ultimately increase our production capacity. After starting construction on 22,400 homes this quarter, our homes in inventory increased 26% from a year ago to 47,800 homes at September 30, 2021. In October, we started more than 8,000 homes, further positioning us to achieve double-digit growth again in 2022. We believe our strong balance sheet, liquidity and low leverage position us very well to operate effectively through changing economic conditions. We plan to maintain our flexible operational and financial position by generating strong cash flows from our homebuilding operations and managing our product offerings, incentives, home pricing, sales pace and inventory levels to optimize our returns. Mike?

我們希望克服供應鏈挑戰並最終提高我們的生產能力。在本季度開工建設 22,400 套房屋後，截至 2021 年 9 月 30 日，我們的庫存房屋較上年同期增長 26% 至 47,800 套。10 月份，我們開工了 8,000 多套房屋，進一步定位我們再次實現兩位數增長2022 年。我們相信我們強大的資產負債表、流動性和低杠桿率使我們能夠在不斷變化的經濟條件下有效運營。我們計劃通過從我們的住宅建築業務中產生強勁的現金流並管理我們的產品供應、激勵措施、房屋定價、銷售速度和庫存水平來優化我們的回報，從而保持我們靈活的運營和財務狀況。麥克風？

Diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 increased 65% to $3.70 per share. And for the year, diluted earnings per share increased 78% to $11.41. Net income for the quarter increased 62% to $1.3 billion. And for the year, net income increased 76% to $4.2 billion.

2021 財年第四季度稀釋後每股收益增長 65% 至每股 3.70 美元。全年，每股攤薄收益增長 78% 至 11.41 美元。本季度淨收入增長 62% 至 13 億美元。這一年，淨收入增長了 76%，達到 42 億美元。

Our fourth quarter home sales revenues increased 24% to $7.6 billion on 21,937 homes closed, up from $6.1 billion on 20,248 homes closed in the prior year. Our average closing price for the quarter was $346,100, up 14% from last year. And the average size of our homes closed was down 1%. Bill?

我們第四季度的房屋銷售收入增長了 24%，達到 76 億美元，關閉了 21,937 套房屋，高於去年關閉的 20,248 套房屋的 61 億美元。我們本季度的平均收盤價為 346,100 美元，比去年上漲 14%。我們關閉的房屋的平均面積下降了 1%。賬單？

Net sales orders in the fourth quarter decreased 33% to 15,949 homes, and the value of those orders was $6 billion, down 17% from $7.3 billion in the prior year. A year ago, our fourth quarter net sales orders were up 81% due to the surge in housing demand during the first year of the pandemic when we had significantly more completed homes available to sell and prior to the supply chain challenges that arose in 2021.

第四季度淨銷售訂單減少 33% 至 15,949 套，這些訂單的價值為 60 億美元，比去年同期的 73 億美元下降 17%。一年前，我們第四季度的淨銷售訂單增長了 81%，這是由於在大流行的第一年住房需求激增，當時我們有更多的完工房屋可供出售，而且在 2021 年出現供應鏈挑戰之前。

Our average number of active selling communities decreased 5% from the prior year and was down 3% sequentially. Our average sales price on net sales orders in the fourth quarter was $378,300, up 23% from the prior year. The cancellation rate for the fourth quarter was 19%, flat with the prior year quarter. As David described, new home demand remains very strong, and our local teams are continuing to restrict our sales order pace where necessary on a community-by-community basis based on the number of homes in inventory, construction times, production capacity and lot position.

我們的活躍銷售社區平均數量比上一年下降了 5%，環比下降了 3%。我們第四季度淨銷售訂單的平均銷售價格為 378,300 美元，比去年同期增長 23%。第四季度的取消率為 19%，與去年同期持平。正如大衛所描述的那樣，新房需求仍然非常強勁，我們的當地團隊將繼續根據庫存房屋數量、施工時間、生產能力和地塊位置，在必要時逐個社區限制我們的銷售訂單速度.

They also continue to adjust sales prices to market while staying focused on providing value to our buyers. We are still restricting the pace of our sales orders during our first fiscal quarter, but to a lesser extent than during our fourth quarter. As a result, we expect our first quarter net sales orders to be approximately equal to or slightly higher than our 20,418 sales orders in the first quarter last year.

他們還繼續根據市場調整銷售價格，同時繼續專注於為我們的買家提供價值。我們仍在第一財季限制銷售訂單的速度，但程度低於第四季度。因此，我們預計第一季度的淨銷售訂單將大致等於或略高於去年第一季度的 20,418 份銷售訂單。

Our October net sales order volume was in line with our plans, and we remain confident that we are well positioned to deliver double-digit volume growth in fiscal 2022 with 26,200 homes in backlog, 47,000 homes in inventory, a robust lot supply and strong trade and supplier relationships. Jessica?

我們 10 月份的淨銷售訂單量符合我們的計劃，我們仍然有信心在 2022 財年實現兩位數的銷量增長，積壓 26,200 套房屋，庫存 47,000 套房屋，大量供應和強勁的貿易和供應商關係。傑西卡？

Our gross profit margin on home sales revenue in the fourth quarter was 26.9%, up 100 basis points sequentially from the June quarter. The increase in our gross margin from June to September reflects the broad strength of the housing market, and benefited from the better alignment of our sales order pace to our construction schedules. The strong demand for a limited supply of homes has allowed us to continue to raise prices or lower the level of sales incentives in most of our communities.

我們第四季度的房屋銷售收入毛利率為 26.9%，比 6 月季度連續上升 100 個基點。我們 6 月至 9 月毛利率的增長反映了房地產市場的廣泛實力，並受益於我們的銷售訂單速度與我們的施工進度更好地保持一致。對有限房屋供應的強勁需求使我們能夠繼續提高價格或降低我們大多數社區的銷售激勵水平。

On a per square foot basis, our revenues were up 7% sequentially, while our stick and brick cost per square foot increased 7.5% and our lot cost increased 2%. We expect both our construction and lot costs will continue to increase. However, with the strength of today's market conditions, we expect to offset any cost pressures with price increases.

按每平方英尺計算，我們的收入環比增長了 7%，而每平方英尺的木棍和磚塊成本增長了 7.5%，地塊成本增長了 2%。我們預計我們的建築和地段成本將繼續增加。然而，鑑於當今市場狀況強勁，我們預計可以通過提價來抵消任何成本壓力。

We currently expect our home sales gross margin in the first quarter to be similar to the fourth quarter. We remain focused on managing the pricing, incentives and sales pace in each of our communities to optimize the return on our inventory investments and adjust to local market conditions and new home demand. Bill?

我們目前預計第一季度的房屋銷售毛利率與第四季度相似。我們仍然專注於管理我們每個社區的定價、激勵和銷售速度，以優化我們的庫存投資回報並適應當地市場條件和新房需求。賬單？

In the fourth quarter, homebuilding SG&A expense as a percentage of revenues was 6.9% down 70 basis points from 7.6% in the prior year quarter. For the year, homebuilding SG&A expense was 7.3%, down 80 basis points from 8.1% in 2020. Our homebuilding SG&A expense as a percentage of revenues is at its lowest point for a quarter and for a year in our history, and we are focused on continuing to control our SG&A while ensuring that our infrastructure adequately supports our business. David?

第四季度，房屋建築 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比為 6.9%，比去年同期的 7.6% 下降了 70 個基點。今年，房屋建築 SG&A 費用為 7.3%，比 2020 年的 8.1% 下降了 80 個基點。我們的房屋建築 SG&A 費用佔收入的百分比處於我們歷史上一個季度和一年的最低點，我們專注於繼續控制我們的 SG&A，同時確保我們的基礎設施充分支持我們的業務。大衛？

We have increased our housing inventory in response to the strength of demand and are focused on expanding our production capabilities further. We started 22,400 homes during the fourth quarter and 91,500 homes during fiscal 2021, which is an increase of 21% compared to fiscal 2020. We ended the year with 47,800 homes in inventory, up 26% from a year ago. 21,700 of our total homes at September 30 were unsold, of which 900 were completed. Although we have not seen significant improvement in the supply chain yet, and we expect the current constraints to ultimately moderate at some point in 2022. Mike?

我們增加了住房庫存以應對強勁的需求，並專注於進一步擴大我們的生產能力。我們在第四季度開工了 22,400 套房屋，在 2021 財年開工了 91,500 套房屋，比 2020 財年增長了 21%。到年底，我們有 47,800 套庫存房屋，比一年前增長了 26%。截至 9 月 30 日，我們的房屋總數中有 21,700 套未售出，其中 900 套已完工。儘管我們還沒有看到供應鏈有顯著改善，但我們預計當前的限制最終會在 2022 年的某個時候緩和。邁克？

At September 30, our homebuilding lot position consisted of approximately 530,000 lots, of which 24% were owned and 76% were controlled through purchase contracts. 24% of our total owned lots are finished, and at least 47% of our controlled lots are or will be finished when we purchase them. Our growing and capital-efficient lock portfolio is key to our strong competitive position, and will support our efforts to increase our production volume to meet homebuyer demand. Our fourth quarter homebuilding investments in lots, land and development totaled $1.8 billion of which $1 billion was for finished lots, $330 million was for land and $440 million was for land development. Bill?

截至 9 月 30 日，我們的住宅建築地塊頭寸包括約 530,000 塊地塊，其中 24% 是我們擁有的，76% 是通過購買合同控制的。我們擁有的全部地塊中有 24% 已經完工，我們控制的地塊中至少有 47% 已經或將在我們購買時完成。我們不斷增長且具有資本效率的鎖具組合是我們強大競爭地位的關鍵，並將支持我們增加產量以滿足購房者需求的努力。我們第四季度在地塊、土地和開發方面的房屋建築投資總計 18 億美元，其中 10 億美元用於完工地塊，3.3 億美元用於土地，4.4 億美元用於土地開發。賬單？

Forestar, our majority-owned subsidiary, is a publicly traded, well-capitalized residential lot manufacturer operating in 56 markets across 23 states. Forestar continues to execute extremely well on its high-growth plan as they increased their lots sold by 53% to 15,915 lots during fiscal 2021 compared to the prior year. Forestar's pretax profit margin for the year improved 400 basis points to 12.4% excluding an $18.1 million loss on extinguishment of debt.

我們的控股子公司 Forestar 是一家公開交易、資本充足的住宅地塊製造商，在 23 個州的 56 個市場開展業務。 Forestar 繼續出色地執行其高增長計劃，因為與上一年相比，他們在 2021 財年售出的地塊數量增加了 53%，達到 15,915 塊地塊。 Forestar 今年的稅前利潤率提高了 400 個基點，達到 12.4%，其中不包括 1810 萬美元的債務清償損失。

At September 30, Forestar's owned and controlled lot position increased 60% from a year ago to 97,000 lots. 61% of Forestar's owned lots are under contract with D.R. Horton or subject to a right of first offer under our master supply agreement. $370 million of D.R. Horton's land and lot purchases in the fourth quarter were from Forestar. Forestar is separately capitalized from D.R. Horton and had approximately $500 million of liquidity at year-end with a net debt to capital ratio of 35.2%. With its current capitalization, strong lot supply and relationship with D.R. Horton, Forestar plans to continue profitably growing their business. Jessica?

截至 9 月 30 日，Forestar 擁有和控制的地塊數量比一年前增加了 60%，達到 97,000 塊地塊。 Forestar 擁有的 61% 的土地與 D.R. 簽訂了合同。 Horton 或根據我們的主供應協議享有優先報價權。 3.7 億美元的 D.R.霍頓在第四季度購買的土地和地塊來自 Forestar。 Forestar 與 D.R. 分開資本化。 Horton 和年末擁有大約 5 億美元的流動資金，淨債務資本比率為 35.2%。憑藉其目前的資本化、強大的批次供應以及與 D.R. 的關係。霍頓，Forestar 計劃繼續盈利地發展他們的業務。傑西卡？

Financial services pretax income in the fourth quarter was $103 million on $223 million of revenues with a pretax profit margin of 46.1%. For the year, financial services pretax income was $365 million on $824 million of revenues, representing a 44.3% pretax profit margin. For the quarter, 98% of our mortgage company's loan originations related to homes closed by our homebuilding operations and our mortgage company handled the financing for 66% of our homebuyers. FHA and VA loans accounted for 45% of the mortgage company's volume. Borrowers originating loans with DHI Mortgage this quarter had an average FICO score of 722 and an average loan-to-value ratio of 89%. First-time homebuyers represented 59% of the closings handled by our mortgage company this quarter. Mike?

第四季度金融服務稅前收入為 1.03 億美元，收入為 2.23 億美元，稅前利潤率為 46.1%。全年，金融服務稅前收入為 3.65 億美元，收入為 8.24 億美元，稅前利潤率為 44.3%。本季度，我們抵押貸款公司 98% 的貸款發放與我們的房屋建築業務關閉的房屋有關，我們的抵押貸款公司為 66% 的購房者處理了融資。 FHA 和 VA 貸款佔抵押貸款公司貸款量的 45%。本季度通過 DHI Mortgage 發放貸款的借款人的平均 FICO 得分為 722，平均貸款價值比為 89%。首次購房者占我們抵押貸款公司本季度處理的成交量的 59%。麥克風？

Our multifamily and single-family rental operations generated a combined pretax income of $74.3 million in the fourth quarter and $86.5 million in fiscal 2021. Our total rental property inventory at September 30 was $841 million compared to $316 million a year ago. We sold 3 multifamily properties totaling 960 units during fiscal 2021 for $191.9 million, all of which were sold in the fourth quarter compared to 2 properties totaling 540 units sold in fiscal 2020.

我們的多戶和單戶租賃業務在第四季度產生了 7430 萬美元的綜合稅前收入，在 2021 財年產生了 8650 萬美元。截至 9 月 30 日，我們的出租物業庫存總額為 8.41 億美元，而一年前為 3.16 億美元。我們在 2021 財年以 1.919 億美元的價格出售了 3 處多戶住宅物業，總計 960 套，全部在第四季度售出，而 2020 財年售出 2 套物業，總計 540 套。

We sold 3 single-family rental communities totaling 260 homes during fiscal 2021 for $75.9 million, including 1 sale of 64 homes during the fourth quarter for $21 million in revenue.

我們在 2021 財年以 7590 萬美元的價格出售了 3 個單戶出租社區，共計 260 套房屋，其中包括在第四季度以 2100 萬美元的收入出售了 64 套房屋。

In fiscal 2022, we expect our rental operations to generate more than $700 million in revenues from rental property sales. We also expect to grow the total inventory investment in our rental platforms by more than $1 billion in fiscal 2022 based on our current rental projects in development and our significant pipeline of future single and multifamily rental projects. We are positioning our rental operations to be a significant contributor to our revenues, profits and returns in future years. Bill?

在 2022 財年，我們預計我們的租賃業務將從租賃物業銷售中產生超過 7 億美元的收入。我們還預計，根據我們目前正在開發的租賃項目以及未來單戶和多戶租賃項目的重要管道，到 2022 財年，我們租賃平台的總存貨投資將增加超過 10 億美元。我們將租賃業務定位為在未來幾年為我們的收入、利潤和回報做出重要貢獻。賬單？

Our balanced capital approach focuses on being disciplined, flexible and opportunistic. During fiscal 2021, our cash provided by homebuilding operations was $1.2 billion, and our cumulative cash generated from homebuilding operations for the past 5 years was $5.9 billion. At September 30, we had $5 billion of homebuilding liquidity, consisting of $3 billion of unrestricted homebuilding cash and $2 billion of available capacity on our homebuilding revolving credit facility.

我們平衡的資本方法側重於紀律嚴明、靈活和機會主義。在 2021 財年，我們的房屋建築業務提供的現金為 12 億美元，過去 5 年我們從房屋建築業務中產生的累計現金為 59 億美元。截至 9 月 30 日，我們擁有 50 億美元的房屋建築流動性，包括 30 億美元的不受限制的房屋建築現金和 20 億美元的房屋建築循環信貸額度的可用容量。

This level of liquidity provides significant flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions. Our homebuilding leverage was 17.8% at fiscal year-end, with $3.1 billion of homebuilding public notes outstanding, of which $350 million matures in the next 12 months.

這種流動性水平為適應不斷變化的市場條件提供了極大的靈活性。截至財年末，我們的房屋建築槓桿率為 17.8%，有 31 億美元的房屋建築公共票據未償還，其中 3.5 億美元將在未來 12 個月內到期。

At September 30, our stockholders' equity was $14.9 billion, and book value per share was $41.81, up 29% from a year ago. For the year, our return on equity was 31.6%, an improvement of 950 basis points from 22.1% a year ago.

截至 9 月 30 日，我們的股東權益為 149 億美元，每股賬面價值為 41.81 美元，比一年前增長 29%。這一年，我們的股本回報率為 31.6%，比一年前的 22.1% 提高了 950 個基點。

During the quarter, we paid cash dividends of $71.6 million for a total of $289.3 million of dividends paid during the year. During the quarter, we repurchased 2.3 million shares of common stock for $212.6 million, and our stock repurchases during fiscal year 2021 totaled 10.4 million shares for $874 million. Our outstanding share count is down 2% from a year ago, and our remaining share repurchase authorization at September 30 was $546.2 million. We remain committed to returning capital to our shareholders through both dividends and share repurchases on a consistent basis, and to reducing our outstanding share count each fiscal year. Based on our financial position and outlook for fiscal 2022, our Board of Directors increased our quarterly cash dividend by 13% to $0.225 per share. Jessica?

本季度，我們支付了 7160 萬美元的現金股息，全年支付的股息總額為 2.893 億美元。本季度，我們以 2.126 億美元回購了 230 萬股普通股，2021 財年我們以 8.74 億美元回購了 1040 萬股普通股。我們的流通股數量比一年前下降了 2%，截至 9 月 30 日，我們剩餘的股票回購授權為 5.462 億美元。我們仍然致力於通過一致的基礎上的股息和股票回購向我們的股東返還資本，並減少每個財政年度的流通股數量。根據我們的財務狀況和 2022 財年展望，我們的董事會將季度現金股息提高 13% 至每股 0.225 美元。傑西卡？

As we look forward to the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we are expecting market conditions to remain similar with strong demand from homebuyers but continuing supply chain challenges that will delay home construction, completion and closings. We expect to generate consolidated revenues in our December quarter of $6.5 billion to $6.8 billion and our homes closed by our homebuilding operations to be in a range between 17,500 and 18,500 homes.

在我們展望 2022 財年第一季度時，我們預計市場狀況將保持相似，購房者的需求強勁，但持續的供應鏈挑戰將推遲房屋建設、完工和關閉。我們預計 12 月季度的綜合收入將達到 65 億美元至 68 億美元，我們的房屋建築業務關閉的房屋數量將在 17,500 至 18,500 套房屋之間。

We expect our home sales gross margin in the first quarter to be 26.8% to 27%, and homebuilding SG&A as a percentage of revenues in the first quarter to be approximately 8%. We anticipate a financial services pretax profit margin in the range of 30% to 35%, and we expect our income tax rate to be approximately 24% in the first quarter. Looking further out, we currently expect to generate consolidated revenues for the full fiscal year of 2022 of $32.5 billion to $33.5 billion and to close between 90,000 and 92,000 homes.

我們預計第一季度房屋銷售毛利率為 26.8% 至 27%，房屋建築 SG&A 佔第一季度收入的百分比約為 8%。我們預計金融服務稅前利潤率在 30% 至 35% 之間，我們預計第一季度的所得稅稅率約為 24%。展望未來，我們目前預計 2022 年整個財政年度的綜合收入將達到 325 億至 335 億美元，並關閉 90,000 至 92,000 套房屋。

We forecast an income tax rate for fiscal 2022 of approximately 24%, subject to changes in potential future legislation that could increase the federal corporate tax rate. We also expect that our share repurchases will reduce our outstanding share count by approximately 2% at the end of fiscal 2022 compared to the end of fiscal 2021. We expect to generate positive cash flow from our homebuilding operations in fiscal 2022 after our investments in homebuilding inventories to support double-digit growth. We will then balance our cash flow utilization priorities among increasing the investment in our rental operations, maintaining conservative homebuilding leverage and strong liquidity, paying an increased dividend and consistently repurchasing shares. David?

我們預測 2022 財年的所得稅稅率約為 24%，但受未來可能提高聯邦企業稅率的立法變化的影響。我們還預計，與 2021 財年末相比，到 2022 財年末，我們的股票回購將使我們的流通股數量減少約 2%。我們預計，在對房屋建築進行投資後，我們將在 2022 財年的房屋建築業務中產生正現金流庫存支持兩位數的增長。然後，我們將在增加對租賃業務的投資、保持保守的房屋建築槓桿和強勁的流動性、支付更多的股息和持續回購股票之間平衡我們的現金流利用優先事項。大衛？

In closing, our results reflect our experienced teams and production capabilities, industry-leading market share, broad geographic footprint, and diverse product offerings across multiple brands. Our strong balance sheet, liquidity and low leverage provide us with significant financial flexibility to capitalize on today's robust market and to effectively operate in changing economic conditions. We plan to maintain our disciplined approach to investing capital to enhance the long-term value of the company, which includes returning capital to our shareholders through both dividends and share repurchases on a consistent basis.

最後，我們的業績反映了我們經驗豐富的團隊和生產能力、行業領先的市場份額、廣泛的地理足跡以及跨多個品牌的多樣化產品。我們強大的資產負債表、流動性和低杠桿率為我們提供了顯著的財務靈活性，可以利用當今強勁的市場並在不斷變化的經濟條件下有效運營。我們計劃保持我們嚴格的資本投資方法，以提高公司的長期價值，包括通過一致的基礎上的股息和股票回購向我們的股東返還資本。

Thank you to the entire D.R. Horton team for your focus and hard work. Your efforts during 2021 were remarkable. We closed the most homes in a year in our company's history, achieving 10% market share with record profits and returns, and we are incredibly well positioned to continue growing and improving our operations in 2022.

感謝整個 D.R.霍頓團隊為您的專注和努力。您在 2021 年的努力非常出色。我們在一年內關閉了公司歷史上最多的房屋，實現了 10% 的市場份額，利潤和回報創歷史新高，我們在 2022 年繼續發展和改善業務方面處於非常有利的地位。

This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now host questions.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。我們現在將主持問題。

(Operator Instructions) The first question is coming from Carl Reichardt from BTIG.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Carl Reichardt。

Welcome, Paul. I wanted to ask about your sort of internal plans for '22 for orders and perhaps talk a little bit about what you see your community count doing relative to your absorptions in which you lean on more for growth in the next fiscal year.

歡迎，保羅。我想問一下你對 22 年訂單的內部計劃，也許會談談你看到你的社區相對於你在下一個財政年度依靠更多增長的吸收所做的事情。

Well, as far as sales absorptions and community count, I think we're still believing that the community count is flat to up single digit, low single digit. And as far as our sales numbers, if we're projecting to deliver 90,000 to 92,000 homes, then we've got to have sales pace that matches that.

好吧，就銷售吸收和社區數量而言，我認為我們仍然相信社區數量持平到個位數，低個位數。至於我們的銷售數字，如果我們計劃交付 90,000 到 92,000 套房屋，那麼我們必須有與之相匹配的銷售速度。

And again, Carl, the key to us is making sure that when we sell a home, we know when it's going to see and deliver. And as -- what I believe is, as the market continues into '22 that you're going to see stabilization on the material side first. And then the labor side, we've been working on expanding our labor base for the last 10 years. And the consistent level of starts has allowed us to drive an efficiency there that has allow us to deliver more houses and we just plan on continuing to do that.

再一次，Carl，我們的關鍵是確保當我們出售房屋時，我們知道它何時會看到並交付。而且——我相信，隨著市場繼續進入 22 世紀，你將首先看到材料方面的穩定。然後是勞動力方面，過去 10 年我們一直在努力擴大我們的勞動力基礎。一致的開工水平使我們能夠提高效率，使我們能夠交付更多房屋，我們只是計劃繼續這樣做。

And really rather than a focus on community count, it ebbs and flows quarter-to-quarter. If we start a house, we're going to ultimately sell and close it. So we really focus on our homes and inventory and our lot position.

實際上，它不是專注於社區數量，而是每季度起伏不定。如果我們開始建房子，我們最終會出售並關閉它。所以我們真正關注我們的房屋和庫存以及我們的地段位置。

Both of which are in very, very good shape right now.

兩者現在都處於非常非常好的狀態。

Yes.

是的。

Okay. I appreciate that. And then, David, I wanted to go back to something that D.R. Horton has talked about in the past that we don't hear too much from others is this idea of getting your cash out of land investments within 24 months of when you put it in. And I'm curious really on 2 fronts. One, the significant shift to options has probably allowed that to improve. But on the other hand, the delays in entitlement and approval processes and finding dirt has probably hurt that. So can you talk about that goal of getting your cash out of your land investments within 24 months and how you see that changing over time?

好的。我很感激。然後，大衛，我想回到 D.R.霍頓過去曾談到，我們並沒有從其他人那裡聽到太多關於在投入土地投資後 24 個月內從土地投資中提取現金的想法。我真的很好奇兩個方面。第一，向期權的重大轉變可能使這種情況有所改善。但另一方面，權利和批准流程的延誤以及發現污點可能會損害這一點。那麼，您能否談談在 24 個月內從土地投資中獲得現金的目標，以及您如何看待隨著時間的推移而發生的變化？

Well, I would say it's more of a requirement, not a goal, Carl. That's something that we put in place coming out of the downturn that we have not wavered off of. And that is probably the toughest underwriting hurdle that our divisions had to face. But it's a nonnegotiable program because we saw what's going wrong on owning long positions in land does to your balance sheet and your risk level and what -- or unforeseen events that may happen in the future.

好吧，我會說這更像是一個要求，而不是一個目標，卡爾。這是我們從經濟低迷中走出來並沒有動搖過的東西。這可能是我們部門必鬚麵對的最艱難的承保障礙。但這是一個不容談判的計劃，因為我們看到了在土地上持有多頭頭寸對您的資產負債表和風險水平的影響，以及未來可能發生的不可預見的事件。

So the 24-month cash back is still a part of every deal we underwrite. And has been a primary factor, I think, in driving our optional acquisition because it's -- we have to find partners. We have to control the lots we want to control. So we've got to be good partners with these guys. And that's been a focus through this entire cycle. And I think a major factor in that is the -- just the unrelenting underwriting requirement that you got to get your cash off the table in 24 months.

因此，24 個月的現金返還仍然是我們承保的每筆交易的一部分。我認為，這一直是推動我們可選收購的主要因素，因為它——我們必須找到合作夥伴。我們必須控制我們想要控制的地段。所以我們必須與這些人成為好夥伴。這一直是整個週期的焦點。我認為這其中的一個主要因素是——你必須在 24 個月內把現金從桌面上拿走的不屈不撓的承保要求。

And Carl, to your point about extending delays and things like that, that applies when we do own our land and we're self-developing. It doesn't necessarily affect our cash return when we're working with a third party and buying lots because we're not buying a lot until we're ready to start homes and those approvals are in place.

卡爾，關於延長延遲和類似事情的觀點，這適用於我們擁有自己的土地並且我們正在自我開發的情況。當我們與第三方合作並大量購買時，它不一定會影響我們的現金回報，因為在我們準備好開始建造房屋並且獲得批准之前，我們不會大量購買。

I would say more recently, one thing that is impacting our turns and our ability to actually return our cash in 24 months is the extension of our construction times with the supply chain delays. We have seen further elongation of our construction times, I believe, on a year-over-year basis. Our closings this quarter were -- the construction times were longer by about 7 weeks, which is a bit longer than we would have reported last quarter. And so that is a factor that is causing a bit of friction in our inventory turns right now. But hopefully, as we achieve some stabilization on the materials side over the coming year, we'll see that stabilize and hopefully will be able to contract again.

我最近要說的是，影響我們的輪轉和我們在 24 個月內實際返還現金的能力的一件事是我們的施工時間因供應鏈延誤而延長。我相信，與去年同期相比，我們的施工時間進一步延長。我們本季度的關閉是 - 施工時間長了大約 7 週，這比我們上個季度報告的要長一些。因此，這是導致我們的庫存周轉出現一些摩擦的一個因素。但有希望的是，隨著我們在來年實現材料方面的一些穩定，我們將看到穩定並希望能夠再次收縮。

And your next question is coming from Stephen Kim from Evercore ISI.

你的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Stephen Kim。

I guess my first question relates to your company's comments about affordability. I guess, first, am I right to think that you're driving affordability primarily through construction and bot design efficiencies? Or should we think that this effort is going to imply a lower gross margin, all things held constant? And then related to your margin, I imagine you got peak lumber coming to your December quarter. So if lumber stays where it is right now, I mean would it be reasonable to think that the December quarter margins is maybe likely to be the low point for the fiscal '22 year?

我想我的第一個問題與貴公司對負擔能力的評論有關。我想，首先，我認為您主要通過構建和機器人設計效率來提高可負擔性是否正確？或者我們是否應該認為這種努力將意味著較低的毛利率，所有事情都保持不變？然後與您的保證金相關，我想您會在 12 月的季度迎來木材高峰期。因此，如果木材保持在現在的水平，我的意思是認為 12 月季度的利潤率可能是 22 財年的低點是否合理？

Well, in terms of lumber costs, they are still rising. They rose further in our fiscal Q4. We've seen them rise further into October. So we do believe that we are seeing the peak of lumber costs. However, other costs are increasing as well. We're seeing costs really increasing across the board. So even when we see perhaps some relief from lumber, as we move further into fiscal '22, I think that will be offset by other cost increases.

好吧，就木材成本而言，它們仍在上漲。他們在我們的第四財季進一步上漲。我們已經看到它們在 10 月進一步上升。所以我們確實相信我們正在看到木材成本的峰值。然而，其他成本也在增加。我們看到成本確實全面增加。因此，即使我們看到木材可能有所緩解，隨著我們進一步進入 22 財年，我認為這將被其他成本增加所抵消。

As far as the net effect on gross margin, ultimately, that will depend on the strength of the demand environment as we move into the spring season. And our ability to continue to offset costs with prices. Right now, our short-term view is that we should be able to offset cost with price and maintain our margins at or around the level that we just reported in the fourth quarter. But truly, as we move through fiscal '22, it will depend on the strength of the demand environment.

至於對毛利率的淨影響，最終將取決於我們進入春季時需求環境的強度。以及我們繼續以價格抵消成本的能力。目前，我們的短期觀點是，我們應該能夠用價格抵消成本，並將我們的利潤率維持在我們剛剛在第四季度報告的水平或附近。但實際上，隨著我們度過 22 財年，這將取決於需求環境的強度。

And our ability to continue to achieve affordability is really across a multitude of things. It's not any one thing we would point to. Clearly, our size and our scale and the construction efficiencies that we've been very focused on, particularly in our Express Homes brand, limiting floor plans, limiting options being able to control a trade at our job site all day long, house to house to house, repetitively doing the same thing over and over and over again has been a benefit in that regard. And then to a lesser extent, we have also continued to see our average square footage come down, and that's the way we can focus on affordability as well is building more of our smaller floor plans.

我們繼續實現負擔能力的能力實際上涉及很多方面。這不是我們要指出的任何一件事。顯然，我們一直非常關注我們的規模和我們的規模以及施工效率，特別是在我們的 Express Homes 品牌中，限制平面圖，限制能夠在我們的工作現場全天挨家挨戶控制交易的選項為了房子，一遍又一遍地重複做同樣的事情在這方面是有好處的。然後在較小程度上，我們也繼續看到我們的平均平方英尺下降，這就是我們可以專注於負擔能力以及構建更多較小平面圖的方式。

Stephen, we're constantly trying to drive a more affordable total occupancy cost for our buyers. And that effort is never going to stop.

斯蒂芬，我們一直在努力為我們的買家提供更實惠的總入住成本。而且這種努力永遠不會停止。

Right. I think the gist of my question was that none of that implies a necessarily a lower gross margin, all else held constant, right?

正確的。我認為我的問題的要點是，所有這些都不意味著一定會降低毛利率，其他一切都保持不變，對嗎？

No, I don't -- we're not seeing that.

不，我沒有——我們沒有看到。

All right. That's what I wanted to clarify. Okay. And then secondly, regarding sales restrictions. Again, I think, obviously, really encouraging, we do an analysis of your starts and your inventory. And it certainly -- we agree, we saw a really big positive inflection in your production metrics that we can see externally. And so I wanted to ask you about your comment about sales restrictions because a lay person or somebody listening from the outside could hear you say, "Hey, we're reducing our sales restrictions" and think to themselves, well, yes, that's because demand has weakened. And so therefore, there aren't as many people on waiting list and things like that.

好的。這就是我想澄清的。好的。其次，關於銷售限制。同樣，我認為，很明顯，我們對您的開工和庫存進行了分析，這確實令人鼓舞。當然 - 我們同意，我們在您的生產指標中看到了一個非常大的積極變化，我們可以從外部看到。所以我想問你關於銷售限制的評論，因為外行人或從外面聽到的人可能會聽到你說，“嘿，我們正在減少我們的銷售限制”，然後自己想，嗯，是的，那是因為需求已經減弱。因此，等待名單上的人並不多，諸如此類。

And so I was wondering if you could clarify with maybe a little more detail. Are you -- these sales restrictions, which are starting to get alleviated or being relaxed. Is that a sign of slowing demand or increasing supply? And assuming it's not a weakening of demand, I just wanted to go back to what you said in March, I think, Jessica, that you did a stress test on your backlog. I thought that gave a lot of comfort about affordability. I was wondering if you did that recently.

所以我想知道你是否可以更詳細地澄清一下。你是——這些銷售限制開始得到緩解或放鬆。這是需求放緩還是供應增加的跡象？假設這不是需求減弱，我只想回到你在 3 月份所說的話，傑西卡，你對你的積壓工作進行了壓力測試。我認為這給負擔能力帶來了很多安慰。我想知道你最近是否這樣做過。

So the last question, yes, we did update the stress testing. We look at that every quarter in our backlog and found no real change. In fact, there may be a slight improvement from the March quarter to what we saw in September quarter backlog. And the sales restrictions is certainly a function of supply. We're seeing that we have been able to pull more homes through the production process to points where we are able to give that buyer a more confident delivery date and give them a better experience in the process.

所以最後一個問題，是的，我們確實更新了壓力測試。我們每個季度都會查看我們的積壓工作，沒有發現真正的變化。事實上，從 3 月季度到我們在 9 月季度看到的積壓情況可能略有改善。銷售限制當然是供應的一個功能。我們看到，我們已經能夠通過生產過程將更多房屋拉到能夠為買家提供更有信心的交貨日期並在該過程中為他們提供更好體驗的地步。

I don't think in any way it's -- sales have been reflective of the demand environment. We have consciously chosen not to push our sales contracts and take advantage of that demand until we can meet those customer expectations properly. So we've seen that our completed homes in inventory that are unsold are still below 1,000 homes, and that's scattered across the country. So it's not like we're seeing any pile up of available inventory. It's when we're releasing homes, we're able to sell those homes in the normal course of business.

我不認為它是 - 銷售反映了需求環境。我們有意識地選擇不推動我們的銷售合同並利用這種需求，直到我們能夠適當地滿足這些客戶的期望。因此，我們已經看到未售出的已完工庫存房屋仍低於 1,000 套，而且這些房屋分散在全國各地。因此，我們並沒有看到任何堆積的可用庫存。當我們發布房屋時，我們能夠在正常的業務過程中出售這些房屋。

And as a reminder, for those that may not have heard the stress test commentary last quarter and just to quantify that, the stress test that we've done on our backlog is if interest rates were to rise 100 basis points, what that at-risk buyer would look like. And it's generally mid- to high single-digit percentage of potential at risk with a full 100 basis point move. And that's really just at risk. We would not expect a total fallout in that regard. We look to document additional income, look to put those buyers in additional -- in different mortgage products than they're currently anticipating. So we feel pretty comfortable still with the ability of our buyers from an affordability perspective.

提醒一下，對於那些可能沒有聽過上個季度壓力測試評論的人，只是為了量化這一點，我們對積壓工作所做的壓力測試是，如果利率上升 100 個基點，那在 -風險買家會是什麼樣子。整整 100 個基點的變動通常是中高個位數百分比的潛在風險。這真的很危險。我們預計不會在這方面產生全面影響。我們希望記錄額外收入，希望讓這些買家獲得額外的——與他們目前預期不同的抵押貸款產品。因此，從負擔能力的角度來看，我們對買家的能力仍然感到非常滿意。

Your next question is coming from Matthew Bouley from Barclays.

你的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Matthew Bouley。

Congrats on the results here in a pretty tough environment. So on the order outlook, Bill, you spoke to the Q1 uptick, I think, suggesting basically 28% higher sequentially versus Q4, which is certainly well above historical norms. And not surprising as you release those sales restrictions and the inventory homes are there. Does this kind of a typical uptick get you back to equilibrium for lack of a better term?

祝賀在相當艱難的環境中取得的成績。因此，關於訂單前景，比爾，我認為你談到了第一季度的增長，這表明與第四季度相比基本上增長了 28%，這肯定遠高於歷史標準。當您釋放這些銷售限制並且存貨房屋在那裡時，這並不奇怪。由於缺乏更好的術語，這種典型的上升會讓你回到平衡狀態嗎？

Or should we understand that just given your inventory position ahead of the spring that we can perhaps see yet another, I guess, I'd call it an unusual uptick as you kind of release those continue to lessen the sales restrictions?

或者我們是否應該理解，鑑於您在春季之前的庫存狀況，我們可能會看到另一個，我想，我會稱之為不尋常的上升，因為您正在釋放那些繼續減少銷售限制的產品？

Yes. Thanks, Matt. I think we're still in an unusual environment. The prior year trends really don't apply to where we are today. Our sales order pace, the sequential pace of our sales orders is really driven by supply. By the homes that we have started, that we have in production, that reached the stage that we're ready to release them for sales. And so our sales volumes are really governed by or constrained by our homes and inventory and where they stand. So right now, with the visibility that we have to Q1, we believe we're in a position where we will deliver sales that are equal to or maybe slightly better than last year's level, which is an unusual sequential pattern versus where we were in Q4 when we were restricting sales. And then as we move into the year, I think pattern will still be governed by our inventory levels.

是的。謝謝，馬特。我認為我們仍然處於一個不尋常的環境中。前一年的趨勢確實不適用於我們今天所處的位置。我們的銷售訂單速度，我們銷售訂單的順序速度實際上是由供應驅動的。通過我們已經開始的房屋，我們已經在生產中，達到了我們準備發布它們進行銷售的階段。因此，我們的銷量實際上受到我們的房屋和庫存及其所在位置的支配或限制。所以現在，根據我們對第一季度的可見性，我們相信我們的銷售額將與去年的水平相當或略好於去年的水平，這與我們當時的情況相比是一種不尋常的連續模式Q4 我們限制銷售的時候。然後當我們進入這一年時，我認為模式仍將由我們的庫存水平決定。

Well, I think what you're going to see in our forward expectation on sales, it's kind of aligning with our growth in starts that we've had over the past few quarters. And as Bill said, as those homes come through production, and reach production stages that we're confident in the delivery date, then we're able to release those to the marketplace for sales.

好吧，我認為你會在我們對銷售的遠期預期中看到，這與我們過去幾個季度的開工增長保持一致。正如比爾所說，當這些房屋通過生產，並達到我們對交付日期有信心的生產階段時，我們就可以將它們投放市場進行銷售。

That's great. Secondly, on ASPs, I think the revenue guide from doing the math right, implies maybe mid- to high single digit increases in ASPs in fiscal year '22, give or take. Obviously, your order ASPs have been north of that for 2 consecutive quarters, if not, well north of that here in Q4. Are there any assumptions around geographic or product mix that we should be aware of that might temper closing ASPs into next year?

那太棒了。其次，在 ASP 上，我認為通過正確計算得出的收入指南暗示，在 22 財年，ASP 可能會有中高個位數的增長，無論是給予還是接受。顯然，您的訂單 ASP 已經連續 2 個季度高於該水平，如果不是，在第四季度也高於該水平。是否有任何我們應該注意的關於地理或產品組合的假設可能會緩和關閉 ASP 到明年？

Well, I think -- we're looking at the year as a whole, and what our ASP will be for the year will ultimately be dependent on the spring selling season. And so the assumption that prices for the year will be up mid- to high single digit. I think that's fair. We're not going to assume that prices will continue to increase as fast as they have. And so our base assumption will be there will be some moderation in sales prices.

好吧，我認為——我們將全年作為一個整體來看待，我們今年的 ASP 將最終取決於春季銷售季節。因此，假設今年的價格將上漲到中高個位數。我認為這很公平。我們不會假設價格會繼續像現在這樣快速上漲。因此，我們的基本假設是銷售價格會有所緩和。

We're going to continue to be focused on affordability from an intentional perspective for our business. And so for our initial guide going into the year prior to seeing what the spring will look like, prior to seeing what the supply chain challenges will continue to be and what that will do to us over the course of the year, we've set our ASP target as you've seen.

從我們業務的有意角度來看，我們將繼續關注可負擔性。因此，對於我們進入一年的初步指南，在看到春天會是什麼樣子之前，在看到供應鏈挑戰將繼續存在以及這將在一年中對我們產生什麼影響之前，我們已經設定如您所見，我們的 ASP 目標。

Your next question is coming from Mike Rehaut of JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Mike Rehaut。

First question, I was hoping to get a little bit of sense of how you're thinking about gross margins, at least perhaps directionally through fiscal '22 and even longer term. Understanding, obviously, a lot's in flux, but as you look through the rest of the year, obviously, a lot of people are focusing on the reduction of lumber costs as a tailwind. At the same time, you have some other headwinds in terms of additional cost inflation. And I guess, assuming incentives and discounts are steady, just trying to get a sense of how you think at this point between lumber and other areas of cost inflation and the current pricing that you have in place, how things might progress throughout the rest of '22?

第一個問題，我希望對您如何看待毛利率有一點了解，至少可能在 22 財年甚至更長期內是定向的。很明顯，很多事情都在變化，但是當你回顧今年餘下的時間時，很明顯，很多人都在關注降低木材成本作為順風。與此同時，在額外成本通脹方面，你還有其他一些不利因素。而且我想，假設激勵和折扣是穩定的，只是想了解一下您此時如何看待木材和其他成本膨脹領域以及您現有的當前定價，事情在整個其餘時間可能會如何進展'22？

Mike, we really don't have much visibility to our gross margin past a quarter or two. So you heard our specific gross margin guide for fiscal Q1, which was essentially relatively in line with Q4. As Bill mentioned, continued lumber headwinds in that December quarter. Some of that does back off as we move throughout next year. But ultimately, the gross margin that we achieved for fiscal 2022 as a whole is going to be dependent on the strength of the spring selling season, which we're pretty far out on.

邁克，我們對過去一兩個季度的毛利率真的沒有太多了解。所以你聽到了我們第一季度的具體毛利率指南，這基本上與第四季度相對一致。正如 Bill 提到的那樣，在 12 月的那個季度，木材的逆風持續存在。隨著我們在明年全年移動，其中一些確實會退縮。但最終，我們在整個 2022 財年實現的毛利率將取決於春季銷售旺季的強度，而我們距離春季銷售旺季還很遠。

But I think we do feel with the strength in today's market, we should be in a very good position to continue to hopefully at least maintain gross margins from here. But we'll update if necessary as we move throughout the year and see how the spring unfolds and some of the supply chain pressures that are continuing to drive some cost increases.

但我認為我們確實感受到了當今市場的強勁勢頭，我們應該處於非常有利的位置，希望至少能從現在開始保持毛利率。但是，如果有必要，我們會在全年移動時進行更新，看看春天是如何展開的，以及一些供應鏈壓力繼續推動一些成本增加。

Right. I appreciate that. I guess also just longer term, you're kind of in a new state of play here in terms of plus or minus around 27%. Just 3 years ago, you were at closer to 20% and -- versus the last cycle, I think your peak was around 25.5% in 2005. So over the next 2, 3, 4 years, as you're underwriting deals today and just kind of curious, obviously, you kind of underwrite them for returns. But there is a gross margin component in that. How should we think about "normal" or even a new normal, again, assuming that we don't have this over the next 12, 18 months, like, a complete mean reversion to a, let's say, a fuller incentive type backdrop or whatnot?

正確的。我很感激。我想也是從長遠來看，就正負 27% 左右而言，你在這里處於一種新的遊戲狀態。就在 3 年前，你接近 20% 並且 - 與上一個週期相比，我認為你的峰值在 2005 年約為 25.5%。所以在接下來的 2、3、4 年裡，當你今天承銷交易和只是有點好奇，很明顯，你有點為他們的回報承保。但其中有一個毛利率部分。我們應該如何考慮“正常”甚至新常態，再次假設我們在接下來的 12、18 個月內沒有這種情況，例如完全均值回歸到更充分的激勵類型背景或什麼？

Appreciate that, and it's a great point. One, we do focus, first and foremost, on returns and not just the margin. You're right, it is a component of the return equation. And 3 years ago, as you mentioned, we were around 20%. And if we had said at the time, we think 3 years from now, we'll be at 27%, I don't think we'd have gotten a lot of credibility for that prediction. So it's really hard, as Jessica mentioned before, to really give us any great degree of confidence in predicting accurately what margins will be several periods out. I do think in our forward underwriting is that we are encouraged by what we see and what we'll be able to achieve in margins going forward. And ultimately, it's the return and the cash back that's driving our investment decisions today.

對此表示讚賞，這是一個很好的觀點。第一，我們首先關注的是回報，而不僅僅是利潤率。你是對的，它是回報方程式的一個組成部分。 3 年前，正如您提到的，我們的比例約為 20%。如果我們當時說，我們認為 3 年後，我們將達到 27%，我認為我們的預測不會有太多可信度。因此，正如傑西卡之前提到的那樣，真的很難給我們很大的信心來準確預測幾個週期後的利潤率。我確實認為在我們的遠期承保中，我們對我們所看到的以及我們將能夠在未來的利潤率方面取得的成就感到鼓舞。最終，推動我們今天做出投資決策的是回報和現金返還。

Two of the things that we can point to. A lot of the questions have been about are there structural changes in the business that could lead to maintaining a higher gross margin over the long term than what we've historically seen. They're not enough to keep us at 27%, but 2 things we would point to that we believe we can maintain are the scale advantages. We would expect to maintain some level of improved growth in our margin from that, but then also less interest in our cost of sales. With what we've done with our balance sheet in terms of reducing our leverage, we will be flowing through less cost of sales consistently going forward.

我們可以指出兩件事。很多問題都是關於業務的結構性變化是否會導致長期保持比我們歷史上看到的更高的毛利率。它們不足以讓我們保持在 27%，但我們要指出的兩件事是我們相信我們可以保持的規模優勢。我們預計我們的利潤率會因此保持一定程度的改善增長，但也會降低我們對銷售成本的興趣。通過我們在降低杠桿率方面對資產負債表所做的工作，我們將不斷減少銷售成本。

And in the entire industry that's consolidated. It's a maturing industry. So my anticipation is you're going to see more stability than typically as one associated around prior cycles. I think that there's a consistency of discipline in the industry today that never existed.

在整個行業中，整合。這是一個成熟的行業。所以我的預期是你會看到比之前週期相關的穩定性更高的穩定性。我認為當今行業存在前所未有的紀律一致性。

One last quick one, if I could sneak it in. How should we think about community count and sales pace in '22 versus '21 in terms of I think over -- in terms of just growth from both aspects?

最後一個快速的，如果我可以潛入的話。我們應該如何考慮社區數量和銷售速度在 22 年與 21 年相比，我考慮過 - 就兩個方面的增長而言？

It's going to continue to be mainly driven by absorption rather than community count. We would expect for the full year to have a modest increase in our community count. But I think as I referenced to Carl at the outset of the call, if we have the houses and lots, we're going to ultimately sell and close the house. And so that's generally the better indicator of where our business is going than just what our absolute community count is doing.

它將繼續主要由吸收而不是社區數量驅動。我們預計全年我們的社區數量會略有增加。但我認為，正如我在電話會議開始時提到的卡爾，如果我們有房子和地塊，我們最終將出售並關閉房子。因此，這通常是我們業務發展方向的更好指標，而不僅僅是我們的絕對社區數量在做什麼。

Your next question is coming from Deepa Raghavan.

你的下一個問題來自 Deepa Raghavan。

Nice quarter. My first one is on your start space in October, 8,000 or higher homes that suggests a pretty solid rate. Perhaps there's some timing benefit here. But can you walk us through some of the puts and takes to a normalized start pace near term? Or is this a good run rate for 2023 deliveries would perhaps upside when supply chain improves?

不錯的季度。我的第一個是 10 月份的起始空間，8,000 或更高的房屋表明價格相當穩定。也許這裡有一些時間優勢。但是您能否帶我們了解一些看跌期權並在短期內達到正常的啟動速度？或者，當供應鏈改善時，2023 年交付的良好運行率可能會上升嗎？

I think the run rate that we're targeting is pretty well established for the first 4 to 6 months of this year. So that's a consistent run rate we're targeting. I think that we're basing our guidance and everything and what we're projecting for the year on the way the supply chain exists today. And we have to carry more houses and inventory that supports that double-digit growth than we typically have had to do in the past. So we're positioning for it. We'll see what the spring brings, and we'll see what the material and labor supply issues either resolve, mitigate or get worse.

我認為今年前 4 到 6 個月我們的目標運行率已經非常確定。所以這是我們瞄準的一致運行率。我認為我們的指導和一切以及我們今年的預測都基於供應鏈目前的存在方式。而且我們必須攜帶更多的房屋和庫存來支持這種兩位數的增長，這比我們過去通常必須做的要多。所以我們正在為它定位。我們將看到春天帶來什麼，我們將看到材料和勞動力供應問題得到解決、緩解或變得更糟。

It's a lot easier to slow down our start pace than it is to speed it up. So we consistently adjust our starts based on what our forward outlook is.

放慢我們的開始速度比加快速度要容易得多。因此，我們始終根據我們的前瞻性展望來調整我們的起點。

What we control is our liquidity and our process and our targets. And we're very focused on the liquidity because it's a risk mitigator and it allows us to be more flexible in what we target and how we operate.

我們控制的是我們的流動性、我們的流程和我們的目標。我們非常關注流動性，因為它是一種風險緩解器，它使我們能夠更靈活地確定目標和運營方式。

We've already talked on this call about we're in an unusual time in terms of how our sales pace looks. We're also in an unusual time in terms of historical measures of our homes and inventory relative to what we can close with extended construction times and all the disruptions, as David said. We have to hold more homes and inventory to deliver the same number of closings today versus a few years ago.

我們已經在這次電話會議上談到，就我們的銷售速度而言，我們正處於一個不尋常的時期。正如大衛所說，就我們的房屋和庫存的歷史指標而言，我們也處於一個不尋常的時期，相對於我們可以關閉的建築時間延長和所有中斷。我們必須持有更多的房屋和存貨，才能實現與幾年前相同數量的成交量。

The offset to that will be a lot of land in terms of year supply. So we're still driving very impressive returns.

就年供應量而言，與之相抵消的將是大量土地。因此，我們仍在推動非常可觀的回報。

Well, again, we're very focused on liquidity and maintaining the flexibility. That is a -- that's a great key competitive advantage, I think, for whatever happens in the market.

好吧，我們再次非常關注流動性和保持靈活性。我認為，無論市場上發生什麼，這都是一個重要的關鍵競爭優勢。

All fair comments. My follow-up is a pretty high-level question to the extent you're just willing to discuss. How do you think the supply chain is going to play out? Do you appreciate that the visibility is not great beyond a quarter or more at best. But just given the current state, what are your thoughts on a realistic best case or worst case scenario playing out in fiscal 2022? Or even if you don't want to go all out to 2022, what are some of the scenarios as we enter spring selling season?

所有公平的評論。我的後續問題是一個非常高級的問題，就您願意討論的程度而言。您認為供應鏈將如何發揮作用？您知道能見度最多不超過四分之一或更多嗎？但就目前的情況而言，您對 2022 財年出現的現實最佳情況或最壞情況有何看法？或者即使你不想全力以赴到 2022 年，當我們進入春季銷售旺季時，會有哪些情況？

From a supply chain standpoint, I think you've got some of the best companies that have ever existed in the history of the world focused on that. And I think they're going to get it figured out. And the people that we do business with are the best of the best in that industry.

從供應鏈的角度來看，我認為世界歷史上一些最好的公司都專注於此。我認為他們會弄明白的。與我們有業務往來的人都是該行業中的佼佼者。

So I'm very confident. Was it Q1, Q2, Q3? I don't know that, but I am very confident that the people that are working on it are going to get it resolved. And when that happens, I think our -- we will return to an inventory conversion rate consistent with what we've done in the past, maybe even a little better.

所以我很有信心。是 Q1、Q2、Q3 嗎？我不知道，但我非常有信心從事此工作的人員會解決它。當這種情況發生時，我認為我們的 - 我們將恢復到與我們過去所做的一致的庫存轉換率，甚至可能更好一點。

Your next question is coming from Anthony Pettinari from Citigroup.

你的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Anthony Pettinari。

This is Asher Sohnen on for Anthony. And I just want to ask, you mentioned that you need more homes in inventory now to deliver the same number of homes. I'm just -- are you able to articulate a target around maybe your normalized spec count for this kind of new normal? And then when supply chains do clear up, do you expect to reduce that spec count eventually? Or could this become like the new normal going forward?

這是安東尼的 Asher Sohnen。我只想問，您提到您現在需要更多庫存房屋才能交付相同數量的房屋。我只是 - 你是否能夠圍繞這種新常態的標準化規格計數闡明目標？然後，當供應鏈確實清理乾淨時，您是否希望最終減少規格數量？或者這會成為未來的新常態嗎？

Absolutely. When we get back to a more normalized time, we would expect our inventory turns to return back to historical norms as David said, or better. Historically, if you looked at the beginning of the year for us, you could take our homes in inventory, and you could pretty well double that, and that's what we would close the next year. Sometimes, we've done a little better than that, sometimes a little worse. In the current environment, if it remains as tough as it is right now, we will not be able to do that. Our guidance obviously would imply that. But absolutely, when we get back to a more normal time, we would expect to reduce our spec count and turn our inventory and focus on generating the best returns we possibly can. This is simply a reflection of the current environment we're in, the elongated construction times we're seeing.

絕對地。當我們回到一個更加正常化的時間時，我們預計我們的庫存會像大衛所說的那樣恢復到歷史標準，或者更好。從歷史上看，如果你看看我們的年初，你可以把我們的房子放在庫存中，你很可能會把它翻一番，這就是我們明年要關閉的。有時，我們做得比那好一點，有時又差一點。在目前的環境下，如果還像現在這樣艱難，我們是做不到的。我們的指南顯然會暗示這一點。但絕對地，當我們回到更正常的時間時，我們會期望減少我們的規格數量並轉變我們的庫存並專注於產生我們可能的最佳回報。這只是反映了我們當前所處的環境，即我們所看到的延長的施工時間。

Great. Great. And then as a follow-up, just understanding that the sales declines in the quarter is kind of a function of supply. But I'm just curious, have you seen any markets where maybe prices are starting to get a bit frothy or that you're concerned around affordability, maybe seeing some buyers start to walk away around the margins?

偉大的。偉大的。然後作為後續行動，只需了解本季度的銷售額下降是供應的一種功能。但我很好奇，你是否看到過任何市場，價格可能開始變得有點泡沫，或者你擔心負擔能力，也許看到一些買家開始在利潤率附近走開？

I think it's pretty clear that the market is not as white hot right now as it was in the spring, but we're still seeing very strong demand. And the homes that we're leasing for sale are still being absorbed quite well with very historical low levels of incentives in place. And so we're seeing very few homes complete construction that are not being sold part of that completion process.

我認為很明顯，現在的市場不像春天那樣白熱化，但我們仍然看到非常強勁的需求。我們出租出售的房屋仍然被吸收得很好，而且激勵措施的水平非常低。因此，我們看到很少有房屋完工，但在完工過程中沒有出售。

And I'd also say that even though our ASP has gone up and it's not a sustainable rise quarter-to-quarter. But it is something that I think indicates the level of demand out there when you restrict on the houses you sell. It's a good time to be selling houses today.

而且我還要說，即使我們的 ASP 已經上升，而且每季度的增長都不是可持續的。但我認為，當您限制出售的房屋時，這表明了那裡的需求水平。今天是賣房子的好時機。

Demand still exceeds supply.

需求仍然超過供應。

Yes.

是的。

And I think in terms of Mike's comment, it's not as white hot as in the spring. We are seeing, I think, somewhat of a return to normal seasonality as well. We wouldn't expect the market to be as strong today as it is during the spring selling season. So we still feel very good as we move throughout fiscal '22 that the market is going to remain robust.

我認為就邁克的評論而言，它不像春天那樣白熱化。我認為，我們也在某種程度上看到了正常季節性的回歸。我們預計今天的市場不會像春季銷售旺季時那樣強勁。因此，當我們在整個 22 財年移動時，我們仍然感覺非常好，市場將保持強勁。

Right. Of those 900 homes we have that are completed and unsold less than 100 have been completed for an extended period of time, out of almost 50,000 homes.

正確的。在我們擁有的 900 套已完工和未售出的房屋中，在將近 50,000 套房屋中，只有不到 100 套已經完成了很長一段時間。

Your next question is coming from Jade Rahmani from KBW.

您的下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Jade Rahmani。

On the land side, you said that sequentially, lot costs were up 2% quarter-over-quarter. How much do you think they're up year-over-year?

在陸地方面，你說地塊成本環比上漲 2%。你認為他們同比增長了多少？

Give me one second, Jade. I have it. I just -- they're up about a mid-single-digit percentage, which has been pretty consistent now for the last year or 2 on a year-over-year basis.

給我一秒鐘，傑德。我有。我只是 - 他們增長了大約中個位數的百分比，這在過去一年或兩年中與去年同期相比一直非常穩定。

Okay. That's somewhat surprising because I think historically, land usually appreciates in line with appreciation or perhaps at a faster clip. Do you expect log costs to begin accelerating as the moderate pace of growth reflective of the timing at which you acquired these lots?

好的。這有點令人驚訝，因為我認為從歷史上看，土地通常會隨著升值而升值，或者可能會以更快的速度升值。您是否預計原木成本會開始加速，因為適度的增長速度反映了您收購這些地段的時間？

That's got a lot to do with it, Jade. It's -- the homes we're delivering this quarter are delivered on a large variety of vintages of lot acquisitions of one we contracted for the land and contracted for the lots. And so you're seeing a big blend come through. So generally, we are seeing cost inflation in our lot costs and what we're currently buying. But it takes -- it's a muted impact in the near term, and it takes several years for those costs to be fully reflected through into our closings.

這與它有很大關係，傑德。這是——我們本季度交付的房屋是在我們為土地承包並承包地塊的大量收購中交付的。所以你看到了一個大的融合。因此，總的來說，我們看到我們的批量成本和我們目前購買的產品成本膨脹。但這需要——在短期內影響不大，而且這些成本需要幾年時間才能完全反映到我們的關閉中。

And this is one of the strengths of our long lot pipeline and our controlled lot position because we've got land and lots controlled generally at fixed prices or at known prices. And so we reap the benefit of that by having a strong controlled lot position.

這是我們的長地段管道和我們受控的地塊位置的優勢之一，因為我們通常以固定價格或已知價格控制土地和地塊。因此，我們通過擁有強大的受控地段頭寸從中獲益。

Your next question is coming from Truman Patterson from Wolfe Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Truman Patterson。

Paul, congratulations on the promotion. Just wanted to follow up on a prior question. Your '22 closings expectations, up about 11% year-over-year at the midpoint. You all mentioned material shortages and multiple products currently. But David, you've made a couple of comments that you expect improvement in 2022. I'm just trying to understand what are your suppliers telegraphing you with respect to 2022 capacity? Are they adding employees, lines, et cetera? Just what sort of level of growth do they think they can support?

保羅，恭喜你升職了。只是想跟進先前的問題。您的 22 年收盤預期中點同比增長約 11%。你們都提到了目前材料短缺和多種產品。但是大衛，你發表了一些你希望在 2022 年有所改善的評論。我只是想了解你的供應商就 2022 年的產能向你傳達了什麼信息？他們是否在增加員工、線路等？他們認為自己可以支持什麼樣的增長水平？

We've got commitments from all of our major material guys that they're going to support us. They know our numbers. They know what we're trying to accomplish. They see our start base for the last 6 months and the next 6 months. So -- and they are really good companies. I mean it's -- I'm not going to throw out a bunch of names because I forget about half of them. A CEO of one of them came in with Don Horton, myself and the entire executive team. It's a level of partnership and commitment to each other, I think, that just hadn't existed in the past. And I think as a result of the consolidation of the industry and the significant 10% market share in new home housing is a real number.

我們已經從我們所有的主要材料人員那裡得到了他們將支持我們的承諾。他們知道我們的人數。他們知道我們想要完成什麼。他們會看到我們過去 6 個月和未來 6 個月的起點。所以 - 他們真的是好公司。我的意思是——我不會拋出一堆名字，因為我忘記了其中的一半。其中一家的 CEO 與 Don Horton、我和整個執行團隊一起進來。我認為，這是一種夥伴關係和對彼此的承諾，這在過去是不存在的。而且我認為，由於行業整合，新房市場份額達到 10% 是一個實實在在的數字。

And in our conversations, they are hiring, they are opening new lines. Unemployment benefit going away is expected to have some impact. I think some of the extended impact from the Texas freeze is also expected to be worked through as we move into calendar 2022. So as David said, I mean, these things are taking a while to work through, but they are doing what they need to do to help support our business. And as always, we expect them to support D.R. Horton's business first. And for a lot of those pressures to be sell with smaller builders versus us.

在我們的談話中，他們正在招聘，他們正在開闢新的線路。失業救濟金的取消預計會產生一些影響。我認為隨著我們進入 2022 年日曆，德州凍結的一些擴展影響也有望得到解決。正如大衛所說，我的意思是，這些事情需要一段時間才能解決，但他們正在做他們需要做的事情幫助支持我們的業務。一如既往，我們希望他們支持 D.R.霍頓的生意第一。對於很多與我們相比較小的建築商出售的壓力。

Having scale, significant scale, in these markets is a huge benefit for us and I think really gives us more access and better service than some of the smaller, less -- people with less scale.

在這些市場中擁有規模，顯著的規模對我們來說是一個巨大的好處，我認為與一些規模較小、規模較小的人相比，我們確實為我們提供了更多的機會和更好的服務。

Having a forward lot pipeline of over 0.5 million lots makes it pretty powerful as a conversation piece in talking with the large suppliers.

擁有超過 50 萬手的遠期批次管道使其成為與大型供應商交談的談話內容非常強大。

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And in your capital allocation priorities, I don't believe that I heard anything about M&A. Could you just discuss any -- the level in your pipeline that you're seeing or valuation stretched at this point? Then just a second question. I'm sure it's well deserved, but could you all just run through the decision behind creating the co-COO chair?

好的。好的。很公平。在你的資本分配優先事項中，我相信我沒有聽說過任何關於併購的消息。你能不能討論一下你目前看到的管道中的水平或估值？然後是第二個問題。我相信這是當之無愧的，但你們能不能簡單地回顧一下創建聯合首席運營官主席背後的決定？

Sure. I'll take the first question, and I'll let David handle the second question. The M&A landscape is pretty similar to where it's been in the past few quarters. It's anecdotal. We're not looking for any major transformational M&A opportunities. It would be hard for us to accomplish one of those at the scale we're at today. But we are looking at tuck-in acquisitions to add great platforms and people to the team across the country where we maybe looking for growth. And it's an ongoing conversation with people in that process. But don't look for any major use of capital on that front today.

當然。我將回答第一個問題，我將讓 David 處理第二個問題。併購領域與過去幾個季度的情況非常相似。這是軼事。我們不是在尋找任何重大的轉型併購機會。我們很難以今天的規模完成其中一項。但我們正在考慮收購，以便為我們可能尋求增長的全國團隊增加優秀的平台和人員。在這個過程中，這是與人們的持續對話。但今天不要在這方面尋找任何主要的資本用途。

And on the co-COO program, in looking at our platform, we basically have doubled in the last 5 years. And trying to -- during COVID, trying to get places being not only from an executive officer standpoint, but from a regional president standpoint. We were asking guys to get on planes and really became less and less comfortable with that. So I think on the last call, I made a statement about infrastructure and then immediately had to quit talking about it. Because the infrastructure I was talking about was our platform, which was dual COO roles and then doubling our reach count.

在聯合首席運營官計劃中，看看我們的平台，我們在過去 5 年里基本上翻了一番。並試圖——在 COVID 期間，不僅從執行官的角度，而且從區域總裁的角度，試圖獲得位置。我們要求人們上飛機，但真的越來越不適應了。所以我認為在最後一次通話中，我發表了關於基礎設施的聲明，然後立即不得不停止談論它。因為我所說的基礎設施是我們的平台，它是雙重首席運營官角色，然後使我們的影響力翻了一番。

And it -- so that we're continuing to scale up our platform to make -- to coincide with the scale up in market share that we're gaining. And we've got great people that have performed at exceptional levels. But as you move up that next step, the role changes and the skill set changes. So you've got to get young guys in a position, in my mind anyway, and what we've talked about up here. You've got to get the younger guy into a position, a regional role, where he's working through divisions instead of on top of divisions, and it's a training process.

而且——這樣我們就可以繼續擴大我們的平台來製造——以配合我們正在獲得的市場份額的擴大。我們有表現出色的優秀人才。但是當你進入下一步時，角色會發生變化，技能也會發生變化。所以你必須讓年輕人處於一個位置，無論如何在我看來，以及我們在這裡談論的內容。你必須讓年輕人擔任一個職位，一個區域性的角色，在那裡他通過部門而不是在部門之上工作，這是一個培訓過程。

And so while we've got a great market, while we're scaling up in absorptions, we need to scale up in people. And Paul gives us the ability to touch the regional guys more consistently and to be in the market more consistently, as he travels, Mike travels, I travel. And by increasing the number of regions we were then able to elevate people within divisions to leadership roles. And it's just kind of a consistency stair step where we get more people access to that role and give them a chance to learn that job before something happens and you were forced to make a change.

因此，雖然我們有一個很大的市場，但我們正在擴大吸收範圍，我們需要擴大人口規模。保羅讓我們能夠更一致地接觸區域球員，更一致地進入市場，因為他在旅行，邁克在旅行，我也在旅行。通過增加區域數量，我們能夠將部門內的人員提升到領導角色。這只是一種一致性的階梯，我們讓更多的人獲得這個角色，並讓他們有機會在事情發生之前學習這份工作，你被迫做出改變。

So it's a part of continuing to scale for our next 5 years in a row. And it's -- we've got great people, and we've got an incredibly strong management team. And that's something that, to be honest with you, I think about all the time, is the quality of our people at the division level and region level compared to when I started to the company or compared to when we went public or even compared to the last cycle, what I call super-cycle. So it's -- the company is in an incredibly good position with incredibly good people. And Paul is going to help us make it even better.

因此，這是我們連續 5 年繼續擴大規模的一部分。而且——我們擁有優秀的人才，我們擁有一支非常強大的管理團隊。老實說，我一直在想的是，與我剛到公司時相比，或者與我們上市時相比，甚至與我們上市時相比，我們部門級別和地區級別的員工素質最後一個循環，我稱之為超級循環。所以它 - 公司擁有非常優秀的人才，處於非常有利的位置。保羅將幫助我們做得更好。

Your next question is coming from Eric Bosshard from Cleveland Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Cleveland Research 的 Eric Bosshard。

Two things. First of all, in terms of the spring selling season, I know that you don't have visibility to it. And so there's, by definition, some degree of uncertainty. But as you look at your position and what you're seeing in the market now, could you identify -- these are the areas of notable uncertainty that you just won't know until you get to the spring?

兩件事情。首先，在春季銷售旺季方面，我知道你沒有看到它。因此，根據定義，存在一定程度的不確定性。但是當你審視你的頭寸和你現在在市場上看到的東西時，你能確定——這些是你在春天之前不會知道的顯著不確定性領域嗎？

That's sort of the unknown-unknown. Always a great question. It's one of the things we're always trying to ponder and peer around the quarter and figure out what's going to happen. But one of the big unknowns going into the year is not from a demand side, but from a production capacity side. As David said before, is it going to get better, stay the same or get worse. I mean, it may -- different parts of it may do all 3 over the next 6 to 9 months. And being prepared to handle those challenges is what we deal with every day. As we say when people want to and can buy homes, we can solve the rest of the problems. That's our job. Still see good demand trends out there, still see very good traffic this fall in the models, quality of traffic, interest of traffic and our realtor participation has been really strong starting the fall. So that -- for us, that would be a good sign for continuing what happens.

那是一種未知-未知。總是一個很好的問題。這是我們一直試圖在本季度左右思考和觀察並弄清楚會發生什麼的事情之一。但今年最大的未知數之一不是來自需求方面，而是來自產能方面。正如大衛之前所說，它會變得更好、保持不變還是變得更糟。我的意思是，它可能 - 它的不同部分可能會在接下來的 6 到 9 個月內完成所有 3 件事。準備好迎接這些挑戰是我們每天都要面對的事情。正如我們所說，當人們想要並且可以買房時，我們可以解決其餘的問題。那是我們的工作。仍然看到那裡的良好需求趨勢，今年秋天仍然看到模型中的流量非常好，流量質量，流量興趣以及我們的房地產經紀人參與從秋天開始就非常強勁。所以 - 對我們來說，這將是繼續發生的事情的好兆頭。

What we can control, Eric, is the inventory and how we position it to be in front of the spring market and that we feel very good about. So we can -- that is where we can have targets, we can have a plan. We can execute that plan, and then we'll respond to the market as it comes.

埃里克，我們可以控制的是庫存，以及我們如何將其定位在春季市場之前，我們對此感覺非常好。所以我們可以——那就是我們可以有目標，我們可以有一個計劃。我們可以執行該計劃，然後我們將對市場做出反應。

Okay. That's helpful. And then secondly, a lot of talk about affordability earlier in the call, and I know there's a lot of components of affordability. But ultimately, for your customer, it's them paying the price for the house. And the order ASP, I think coming out of 4Q, is now $380,000, which is certainly different than it was 2 or 3 years ago for the company. I'm just curious how you think about that if -- especially how you think about it relative to the different products that you have and relative to markets how you think consumers respond to that, customers respond to that and the path forward?

好的。這很有幫助。其次，在電話會議的早期，很多人都在談論負擔能力，我知道負擔能力有很多組成部分。但最終，對於您的客戶來說，是他們為房子買單。我認為來自第四季度的訂單 ASP 現在為 380,000 美元，這與公司 2 或 3 年前的情況肯定不同。我只是很好奇你是如何看待這個問題的——特別是你如何看待它相對於你擁有的不同產品以及相對於市場你認為消費者對此有何反應，客戶對此有何反應以及前進的道路？

It's something we talk about and try to stay focused on providing more affordable homes and being the relative affordable choice in a given marketplace. We look at our mortgage company statistics, and we can see that almost 60% of our buyers this quarter were first-time homebuyers. And almost 60% of our buyers had a combined household income, reported income for the mortgage purpose at least of $90,000 or less. And so we still think that provides a good target market for us to continue to look to serve. And while we have seen pricing come up and average loan size come up, the debt-to-income ratios that we're seeing across the loans we're underwriting has not really budged. It's been pretty consistent.

這是我們談論的事情，並努力專注於提供更多負擔得起的房屋，並成為特定市場中相對負擔得起的選擇。我們查看抵押貸款公司的統計數據，可以看到本季度近 60% 的購房者是首次購房者。近 60% 的購房者的家庭總收入為抵押貸款目的的報告收入至少為 90,000 美元或更少。因此，我們仍然認為這為我們提供了一個良好的目標市場，可以繼續尋求服務。雖然我們看到定價和平均貸款規模上升，但我們在承銷的貸款中看到的債務收入比並沒有真正改變。它一直非常一致。

And the industry as a whole has continued to increase sales prices, relatively speaking, we still do have the lowest average sales price generally than almost all the large public builders.

而且整個行業的銷售價格都在持續上漲，相對來說，我們的平均銷售價格還是比幾乎所有的大型公建商都普遍最低。

The final question we have time for today is coming from Alan Ratner from Zelman & Associates.

我們今天有時間提出的最後一個問題來自 Zelman & Associates 的 Alan Ratner。

So I'd love to drill in a little bit on the rental operations. Obviously breaking it out this quarter and certainly, I think, over $700 million of revenue, clearly got some aggressive growth plans there. So I guess focusing first on the single-family rental side, I'd love to hear your thoughts kind of on the rollout there and maybe what you've been surprised on or maybe what's reaffirmed your views up to this point as you start leasing up communities and selling them.

所以我想深入了解一下租賃業務。顯然，本季度打破了它，當然，我認為，超過 7 億美元的收入，顯然在那裡制定了一些積極的增長計劃。所以我想首先關注單戶租賃方面，我很想听聽您對那裡推出的想法，也許是您感到驚訝的事情，或者也許是什麼在您開始租賃時重申了您的觀點建立社區並出售它們。

Are you seeing any interesting trends on who these renters are? Are they longer-term renters, they're choosing to rent? Are they people waiting for a new home to be built? Any kind of either anecdotal or data you could provide there. And I guess, longer term, how big of a piece of the business do you want to target this at?

您是否看到關於這些租房者的任何有趣趨勢？他們是長期租房者，他們選擇租房嗎？他們是在等待新家建成嗎？您可以在那裡提供的任何類型的軼事或數據。而且我想，從長遠來看，您希望將其定位在多大的業務中？

I would say the renters are not terribly different than first-time homebuyers. People moving into areas, they're looking for housing. They're looking for a better lifestyle, things that probably have surprised us, level of demand and the lag up not only from a rental standpoint, but from what I consider institutional-type investor base that has bought the 3 that we've sold. It may not be a white-hot for-sale business this year compared to last year. But it is a white-hot build-to-rent business, especially the way we're positioning these projects as kind of on the affordable end, self-contained, not intermix for sale housing.

我想說租房者與首次購房者並沒有太大的不同。人們搬進地區，他們正在尋找住房。他們正在尋找更好的生活方式，可能讓我們感到驚訝的事情，需求水平和滯後不僅從租金的角度來看，而且從我認為購買了我們出售的 3 個的機構型投資者基礎.與去年相比，今年可能不是白熱化的待售業務。但這是一項白熱化的建房出租業務，尤其是我們將這些項目定位為可負擔的、獨立的、而非混合出售的住房的方式。

Got it. So on that note, David, with as strong as demand has been, I guess, first off, is the 35% margin that you guys generated in that business, is that a realistic kind of intermediate-term margin on that $700-plus million of revenue? And is the plan still to do the merchant build approach? You mentioned the institutional capital, a lot of your peers have either partnered up with some of those investors and established joint ventures or some ongoing investment there. It seems like you're kind of choosing more of the merchant build approach. So profitability and longer term? And any reason why maybe the strategy changes there?

知道了。因此，大衛，儘管需求如此強勁，我想首先是你們在該業務中產生的 35% 的利潤率，這是 700 多萬美元的現實中期利潤率收入？計劃仍然採用商家構建方法嗎？你提到了機構資本，你的很多同行要么與其中一些投資者合作並建立了合資企業，要么在那裡進行了一些持續投資。似乎您正在選擇更多的商家構建方法。那麼盈利能力和長期呢？還有什麼原因可能會改變戰略？

We've got a small sample size thus far on those that we've closed. We've been very pleased with the profit levels we have seen. I expect we will still see some projects that will generate those level of profits. But as we grow the platform and as we build the infrastructure in place to support a larger volume across the country. We wouldn't necessarily expect to continue to generate the same margin that we've shown in these first few. But do expect pretax profit margins to be higher on the rental business than on our for-sale business. And to generate an accretive return, it needs to be a little bit higher because the assets are held a little bit longer. So do still expect to see very attractive profit levels on the rental business, but the current sample size is still a little bit small.

到目前為止，我們已經關閉的樣本量很小。我們對所看到的利潤水平感到非常滿意。我預計我們仍會看到一些項目能夠產生這種水平的利潤。但隨著我們發展平台和建立基礎設施以支持全國更大的交易量。我們不一定期望繼續產生與前幾個相同的利潤率。但確實希望租賃業務的稅前利潤率高於我們的待售業務。為了產生增值回報，它需要更高一點，因為資產持有時間更長一些。所以仍然希望看到租賃業務的利潤水平非常有吸引力，但目前的樣本量仍然有點小。

And as we've said before, as we learn the business, then we'd make our capitalization decisions about how to go about capitalizing the business. And we're still evaluating that, looking at options there.

正如我們之前所說，當我們了解業務時，我們將做出關於如何對業務進行資本化的資本化決策。我們仍在評估它，尋找那裡的選擇。

I will say that everything we work on, everything we think about, we want to do things that are sustainable and scalable. And I can tell you the rental side of this market certainly seems sustainable and with our platform is scalable. So we're pretty excited about it.

我要說的是，我們所做的一切，我們所想的一切，我們都想做可持續和可擴展的事情。我可以告訴你，這個市場的租賃方面看起來肯定是可持續的，而且我們的平台是可擴展的。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。

This does conclude today's question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back to David Auld for closing comments.

今天的問答環節到此結束。現在我想請 David Auld 發表結束評論。

Thank you, Tom. We appreciate everybody's time on the call today and look forward to speaking with you again in January on our first quarter results. And finally, congratulations to the entire D.R. Horton team. You are the first homebuilder to close more than 50,000 homes. You are now the first to close greater than 80,000 homes in a year. And you are well on your way to becoming the first homebuilder to close more than 100,000 homes in a year. Stay humble, stay hungry and stay focused. You'll compete and continue to win every day. Thank you.

謝謝你，湯姆。我們感謝大家今天的電話會議，並期待在 1 月份再次與您討論我們的第一季度業績。最後，祝賀整個 D.R.霍頓隊。您是第一個關閉 50,000 多套房屋的房屋建築商。您現在是第一個在一年內關閉超過 80,000 所房屋的人。您正在成為第一個在一年內關閉超過 100,000 套房屋的房屋建築商。保持謙遜，保持飢渴，保持專注。您每天都會競爭並繼續獲勝。謝謝。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開電話線，度過美好的一天。感謝您的參與。