Meritage Homes Corp (MTH) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Meritage Homes first-quarter 2025 analyst call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加 Meritage Homes 2025 年第一季分析師電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce you to your host, Emily Tadano, VP of Investor Relations and External Communications. Thank you, Emily. You may begin.

現在我很高興向您介紹主持人、投資者關係和外部溝通副總裁 Emily Tadano。謝謝你，艾米麗。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our analyst call to discuss our first-quarter 2025 results. We issued the press release yesterday after the market closed. You can find it along with the slides we'll refer to during this call on our website at investors.meritagehomes.com or by selecting the Investor Relations link at the bottom of our home page.

謝謝您，接線生。早安，歡迎參加我們的分析師電話會議，討論我們 2025 年第一季的業績。我們昨天在股市收盤後發布了新聞稿。您可以在我們的網站 investors.meritagehomes.com 上找到它以及我們在本次電話會議中提到的幻燈片，或透過選擇我們主頁底部的「投資者關係」連結找到它。

Please refer to slide 2, cautioning you that our statements during this call as well as in the earnings release and accompanying slides contain forward-looking statements. Those and any other projections represent the current opinions of management, which are subject to change at any time, and we assume no obligation to update them.

請參閱投影片 2，提醒您我們在本次電話會議以及收益報告和隨附幻燈片中的聲明包含前瞻性陳述。這些預測和任何其他預測均代表管理層的當前意見，這些預測隨時可能發生變化，我們不承擔更新這些預測的義務。

Any forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Our actual results may be materially different than our expectations due to a wide variety of risk factors, which we have identified and listed on this slide as well as in our earnings release and most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically our 2024 annual report on Form 10-K.

任何前瞻性陳述本質上都是不確定的。由於各種各樣的風險因素，我們的實際結果可能與我們的預期有重大差異，我們已在此投影片以及我們的收益報告和最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（特別是我們 2024 年 10-K 表年度報告）中識別和列出了這些風險因素。

We have also provided a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures referred to in our earnings release as compared to their closest related GAAP measures. All share and per share amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock split for the first-quarter 2024 period.

我們也提供了收益報告中提到的某些非 GAAP 財務指標與最接近的 GAAP 指標之間的對帳。所有股份和每股金額均已追溯重述，以反映 2024 年第一季的股票分割。

With us today to discuss our results are Steve Hilton, Executive Chairman; Phillippe Lord, CEO; and Hilla Sferruzza, Executive Vice President and CFO of Meritage Homes. We expect today's call to last about an hour. A replay will be available on our website later today.

今天與我們一起討論業績的有執行董事長史蒂夫·希爾頓 (Steve Hilton)、首席執行官菲利普·洛德 (Phillippe Lord) 和 Meritage Homes 執行副總裁兼首席財務官希拉·斯費魯扎 (Hilla Sferruzza)。我們預計今天的通話將持續約一個小時。今天晚些時候我們將在我們的網站提供重播。

I'll now turn it over to Mr. Hilton. Steve?

現在我將把發言權交給希爾頓先生。史蒂夫？

Thank you, Emily. Welcome to everyone listening in on our call. Today, I'll start by highlighting our first-quarter results and current market trends. Phillippe will cover our strategy and quarterly performance. Hilla will provide a financial overview for the first-quarter and forward-looking guidance.

謝謝你，艾米麗。歡迎大家收聽我們的電話會議。今天，我首先要介紹我們的第一季業績和當前的市場趨勢。Phillippe 將介紹我們的策略和季度業績。Hilla 將提供第一季的財務概覽和前瞻性指導。

Meritage had a healthy start to 2025, selling almost 3,900 homes in the first quarter despite January starting off slower than anticipated. We delivered our second-highest first quarter orders and closings in company history and achieved an average absorption pace of 4.4 net sales per month this quarter as we capitalize on the higher demand of the spring selling season.

Meritage 在 2025 年取得了良好的開端，儘管 1 月份的銷售速度低於預期，但第一季仍售出了近 3,900 套房屋。由於我們充分利用了春季銷售旺季的更高需求，我們實現了公司歷史上第二高的第一季訂單和成交量，並實現了本季每月 4.4 筆淨銷售額的平均吸收速度。

We had a plentiful supply of available inventory ready and attractive financing incentives, allowing us to overcome volatile and elevated mortgage rates and fragile consumer sentiment due to increasing macroeconomic concerns.

我們擁有充足的可用庫存和誘人的融資激勵措施，使我們能夠克服由於宏觀經濟擔憂日益加劇而導致的抵押貸款利率波動和上升以及消費者情緒脆弱的問題。

With over 60% of this quarter's closings also sold during the quarter, our backlog conversion rate was yet another all-time high for the company of 221%, reflecting the benefit of our strategic pivot. Releasing homes for sale within 60 days of completion allows us to shrink the sale to close timeline and we're able to quickly move finished spec inventory during the quarter.

本季成交量的 60% 以上也已售出，我們的積壓訂單轉換率再次創下公司 221% 的歷史新高，反映了我們策略轉型帶來的好處。在竣工後 60 天內發布待售房屋使我們能夠縮短銷售時間，並且我們能夠在本季度快速轉移成品庫存。

Our 3,416 deliveries this quarter generated home closing revenues of $1.3 billion, and we achieved home closing gross margin of 22%. With diluted EPS of $1.69, we increased our book value per share 11% year over year and delivered a return on equity of 14.5% as of March 31, 2025.

本季我們共交付了 3,416 間房子，創造了 13 億美元的房屋成交收入，房屋成交毛利率達到 22%。稀釋每股收益為 1.69 美元，每股帳面價值年增 11%，截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，股本回報率為 14.5%。

We acknowledge that the current macroeconomic conditions have increased uncertainty, resulting in some softening of the housing market as buyers psychological -- as buyer psychology and the cost of homeownership are being challenged. Yet as a result of favorable demographic trends and the limited supply of homes at affordable price points, the new home market, especially at lower price points, is capturing a large portion of total home buyer demand. Our strategy is focused on 60-day closings -- 60-day closing ready commitment and move-in ready inventory is creating a differentiator for us by providing certainty to our customers in a highly unpredictable market.

我們承認，當前的宏觀經濟條件增加了不確定性，導致房地產市場疲軟，因為買家心理和房屋所有權成本正在受到挑戰。然而，由於人口趨勢良好以及價格實惠的住房供應有限，新房市場（尤其是低價房）佔據了購屋者總需求的很大一部分。我們的策略重點是 60 天成交——60 天成交準備承諾和可立即入住的庫存為我們在高度不可預測的市場中提供確定性，從而為我們創造了差異化優勢。

And with that, I will now turn it over to Phillippe.

現在，我將把發言權交給菲利普。

Thank you, Steve. As Steve mentioned, there continues to be healthy traffic at our communities despite affordability being stressed and deterioration of consumer confidence due to challenging macro conditions. This quarter, we successfully balanced both pace and price as we are focused on optimizing returns. Our business strategy was designed around a sales pace of four net sales per month. So as needed, we utilize more incentives and/or increased external commissions to achieve that target.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。正如史蒂夫所提到的，儘管宏觀環境嚴峻導致消費者負擔能力下降、信心下降，但我們社區的客流量仍保持健康。本季度，我們專注於優化回報，成功平衡了速度和價格。我們的商業策略是圍繞每月四筆淨銷售額的銷售速度而設計的。因此，根據需要，我們會利用更多的激勵措施和/或增加外部佣金來實現該目標。

From there, we look to optimize our margins and land positions submarket by submarket and community by community. Given the current macro volatility, this daily discipline ensures that we are not overacting to short-term market swings and that we preserve the long-term value of our land book. Our strategy is intentionally agile, and we constantly are reviewing our starts cadence and land spend, and we'll adjust them based on expected long-term housing dynamics, while reprioritizing our capital deployment.

從此開始，我們希望逐個子市場、逐個社區地優化我們的利潤和土地定位。鑑於當前的宏觀波動，這種日常紀律確保我們不會對短期市場波動反應過度，並確保我們保留土地帳簿的長期價值。我們的策略是有意採取靈活的，我們會不斷審查我們的開工節奏和土地支出，並根據預期的長期住房動態進行調整，同時重新調整我們的資本配置。

Now turning to slide 4. Amidst the tougher economic backdrop, we are proud of our team's efforts in the first quarter of 2025 to secure sales orders of 3,876 homes, which was only 3% lower than the prior year.

現在翻到幻燈片 4。在更嚴峻的經濟狀況下，我們為團隊在 2025 年第一季的努力感到自豪，獲得了 3,876 套房屋的銷售訂單，僅比前一年下降了 3%。

As we mentioned on our last call, January began slower than anticipated, but as we progressed through the balance of the first quarter, the traditional spring season demand felt fairly normal despite heightened levels of macro uncertainty. Average absorption pace decreased from 4.9 per month in the prior year to 4.4 in the first quarter of 2025, in line with our expectations, which was partially offset by a 7% increase in average community count. The cancellation rate of 9% this quarter remained lower than historical averages, primarily due to our 60-day closing rating commitment, which shortens the time line from sale to close and provide certainty to our customers and realtor partners.

正如我們在上次電話會議上提到的那樣，一月份的開局比預期要慢，但隨著第一季的進展，儘管宏觀不確定性加劇，但傳統的春季需求感覺相當正常。平均吸收速度從去年的每月 4.9 下降到 2025 年第一季的 4.4，符合我們的預期，但平均社區數量增加 7% 部分抵消了這一下降。本季 9% 的取消率仍低於歷史平均水平，這主要歸功於我們 60 天的成交評級承諾，這縮短了從銷售到成交的時間，並為我們的客戶和房地產經紀人合作夥伴提供了確定性。

ASP on orders this quarter of 402,000 was down 2% from prior year due to greater utilization of rate buydown financing incentives to assist our customers in solving for a monthly payment, which was partially offset by small price increases in markets and communities that could absorb that.

本季 402,000 份訂單的平均售價較上年同期下降 2%，原因是我們更多地利用利率買斷融資激勵措施來幫助客戶解決每月還款問題，但這一下降被能夠吸收這一下降的市場和社區的小幅價格上漲所部分抵消。

First-quarter 2025 ending community count was 290 compared to 292 at December 31, 2024, and 275 at March 31, 2024, up 8% year over year. During the quarter, 30 new communities came online, a handful of which are related to the Elliott Homes acquisition. We anticipate additional Gulf Coast communities to come online throughout the rest of 2025.

2025 年第一季期末社區數為 290 個，而 2024 年 12 月 31 日為 292 個，2024 年 3 月 31 日為 275 個，較去年同期成長 8%。本季度，有 30 個新社區上線，其中少數與 Elliott Homes 收購有關。我們預計在 2025 年剩餘時間內將有更多墨西哥灣沿岸社區上線。

Also in the first quarter, we completed an additional acquisition of land from a small builder in Nashville, adding to our existing land book in a growing market. The acquisition totaled about 2,500 lots, some of which represent long-term communities. We were successful in having a land maker close on the majority of these communities on our behalf and expect to see the incremental volume from this acquisition in later 2025 and fully in 2026.

此外，在第一季度，我們還完成了從納許維爾一家小型建築商收購土地的額外工作，擴大了我們在不斷增長的市場中的現有土地儲備。此次收購總計涉及約 2,500 個地塊，其中一些代表長期社區。我們成功地讓土地開發商代表我們完成了這些社區的大多數土地收購，並預計此次收購將在 2025 年下半年實現增量，並在 2026 年全面實現增量。

We continue to expect a double-digit year-over-year increase in community count by the end of 2025, which sets us on our path to achieve our stated goal of 20,000 units by 2027.

我們預計，到 2025 年底，社區數量將實現兩位數的同比增長，這將使我們朝著實現 2027 年 20,000 個單位的既定目標邁進。

Before I cover our operational performance this quarter, I wanted to provide some high-level commentary on what we are seeing in Q2. The first few weeks of the second quarter feel fairly consistent with March. And while the sales environment has definitely pulled from the elevated spring selling seasons of the last few years, we are still experiencing a healthy level of interest in our inventory of affordable, move-in-ready homes in line with our historical averages.

在介紹本季的營運業績之前，我想對第二季的情況提供一些高層次的評論。第二季的前幾週感覺與三月相當一致。儘管銷售環境明顯比過去幾年春季銷售旺季有所回落，但我們對可負擔、可立即入住的房屋庫存的興趣仍然與歷史平均水平一致。

Now, moving to the regional level trends on slide 5. First, I want to note that the central region now includes Nashville, along with our Texas markets, aligning our external reporting structure with our internal operations.

現在，轉到投影片 5 上的區域級趨勢。首先，我想指出的是，中部地區現在包括納許維爾以及我們的德州市場，使我們的外部報告結構與內部營運保持一致。

The central region had a highest average absorption pace of 5.3 net sales per month in the first quarter. With every division achieving a backlog conversion well north of 200%, the central region had our highest conversion rate. Customers took advantage of our move-in-ready inventory in these markets with an average sales of closing timeline of about 40 days in the region.

中部地區第一季平均吸收速度最快，每月淨銷售額5.3筆。每個部門的積壓訂單轉換率遠超過 200%，而中部地區的轉換率最高。客戶利用我們在這些市場中可立即入住的庫存，該地區的平均銷售成交時間約為 40 天。

During the first quarter of 2025, we saw more diversity of performance across the country in the West and East regions with some of our markets still experiencing strong demand, while others were more impacted by the current macroeconomic conditions. The West region had an average absorption pace of 4.1 in the first quarter. In the West, Colorado and Utah remain two of the more challenging markets, where the volatile rate environment has meaningfully impact buyer urgency.

2025年第一季度，我們看到全國西部和東部地區的表現更加多樣化，一些市場仍然需求強勁，而其他市場則受到當前宏觀經濟狀況的較大影響。西部地區第一季平均吸收速度為4.1。在西部，科羅拉多州和猶他州仍然是兩個更具挑戰性的市場，波動的利率環境對買家的緊迫性產生了重大影響。

The East region had an average absorption pace of 4.0 net sales per month as compared to 4.6 last year. The region sales pace was impacted by our startup division in Huntville and the Gulf Coast, which are not yet fully operational.

東部地區平均每月淨銷售額吸收速度為 4.0，去年為 4.6。該地區的銷售速度受到我們位於亨特維爾和墨西哥灣沿岸的初創部門的影響，這些部門尚未全面投入營運。

We believe our solid sales effort demonstrates that through our strategy, we are committed to affordability and certainty, which allows us to provide clarity in uncertain times and creates a meaningful competitive advantage against the returning resale inventory. We combined our move-in-ready homes at affordable price points with a 60-day closing commitment and then layer in our engagements with the realtor community and financing incentives, the totality of which creates a homeownership opportunity with distinct advantages.

我們相信，我們紮實的銷售努力表明，透過我們的策略，我們致力於可負擔性和確定性，這使我們能夠在不確定的時期提供清晰度，並在返回的轉售庫存中創造有意義的競爭優勢。我們將價格實惠的可立即入住的房屋與 60 天的成交承諾相結合，然後與房地產經紀人社區進行合作並提供融資激勵措施，所有這些都創造了具有獨特優勢的購房機會。

Now, turning to slide 6. Under our new strategy, we look at total specs and backlog combined to determine the right inventory levels as most of the orders from the first half of a quarter will become intra-quarter closings. We had approximately 8,800 specs and backlog units at March 31, 2025, as compared to 9,000 units at March 31, 2024.

現在翻到幻燈片 6。根據我們的新策略，我們會綜合考慮總規格和積壓訂單來確定正確的庫存水平，因為一個季度上半月的大部分訂單將成為季度內結帳。截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們約有 8,800 個規格和積壓單位，而 2024 年 3 月 31 日則為 9,000 個單位。

We calibrate our starts to achieve our targeted four- to six-month supply of inventory, including the appropriate amount of 60-day move-in ready inventory. We started approximately 3,600 homes in the first quarter of 2025, 13% less than last year's Q1, fairly in line with our sales volume. We look to align our specs starts with sales to ensure we have sufficient supply of available inventory without overburdening our balance sheet.

我們調整開工量以實現目標四至六個月的庫存供應量，包括適量的 60 天可入住庫存。2025 年第一季度，我們開工約 3,600 棟房屋，比去年第一季減少 13%，與我們的銷售量基本持平。我們希望使我們的規格與銷售保持一致，以確保我們有足夠的可用庫存供應，而不會對我們的資產負債表造成過重的負擔。

We had nearly 6,800 spec homes in inventory as of March 31, 2025, up 13% from about 6,000 specs as of March 31, 2024, but slightly down from Q4 as we manage to the current experience on the ground. This represented approximately 23 specs per community this quarter, which corresponds to about five months' supply, in line with our targeted range.

截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們的庫存中有近 6,800 套規格房，比 2024 年 3 月 31 日的約 6,000 套規格房增長了 13%，但由於我們設法保持現有的實際經驗，因此與第四季度相比略有下降。這意味著本季每個社區大約有 23 個規格，相當於大約五個月的供應量，符合我們的目標範圍。

Our inventory per store is normally greater in the early half of the year to address the peak spring selling season demand and then lower in the later half of the year.

為了滿足春季銷售旺季的需求，我們每家商店的庫存通常在上半年較高，而在下半年則較低。

As expected, we have been completing our specs to a later stage of construction prior to releasing them for sales to offer our customers our 60-day closing ready commitment. We maintained our percentage of completed specs at 39% at March 31, 2025, the same level as of December 31, 2024. With over 60% of this quarter closings also sold within the quarter, our ending backlog declined from about 3,000 as of March 31, 2024, to approximately 2,000 homes as of March 31, 2025.

正如預期的那樣，我們在發布銷售之前就已經完成了後期施工的規格，以便向我們的客戶提供 60 天的完工承諾。截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們的規格完成率維持在 39%，與 2024 年 12 月 31 日的水準相同。由於本季成交的房屋中有超過 60% 也在本季內售出，我們的期末積壓房屋數量從截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的約 3,000 套下降到截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日的約 2,000 套。

As a reminder, the lower ending backlog balance today is an output of our strategy as we were able to convert sales to closings much quicker. The higher backlog conversions and shorter cycle times are also generating improved WIP asset turns. As we continue to execute under our new strategy, we will be reevaluating targets for the optimal complete spec level and backlog conversion rates.

提醒一下，今天較低的期末積壓餘額是我們策略的結果，因為我們能夠更快地將銷售轉換為成交。更高的積壓轉換率和更短的周期時間也提高了 WIP 資產週轉率。隨著我們繼續執行新策略，我們將重新評估最佳完整規格等級和積壓轉換率的目標。

I will now turn it over to Hilla to walk through our final results. Hilla?

現在我將把時間交給希拉來介紹我們的最終結果。希拉？

Thank you, Phillippe. Let's turn to slide 7 and cover our Q1 results in more detail. We generated $1.3 billion of home closing revenue this quarter, which was an 8% year-over-year decrease that resulted from declines in both home closing volume and a lower ASP on closings of $393,000 due to increased utilization of financing incentives. While a greater percentage of our customers needed assistance with rates this quarter, the incentive cost per home was lower compared to prior year, but increased sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2024, given market volatility impacting rate lock pricing. We anticipate the use of pricing incentives to remain elevated for the near future.

謝謝你，菲利普。讓我們翻到第 7 張投影片，更詳細地介紹一下我們的第一季業績。本季我們的房屋成交收入為 13 億美元，年減 8%，原因是房屋成交量下降，以及融資激勵措施利用率提高導致成交平均售價降低至 393,000 美元。雖然本季有更大比例的客戶需要利率方面的幫助，但每套房屋的激勵成本與去年同期相比有所下降，但由於市場波動影響了利率鎖定定價，因此從 2024 年第四季開始環比增加。我們預計，在不久的將來，定價獎勵的使用仍將保持在高位。

We demonstrated margin resiliency this quarter, hitting our target percentage despite a tougher sales environment than we had initially expected. Home closing gross margin of 22% in the first quarter of 2025 was down 380 bps from 25.8% in the first quarter of 2024, reflecting the increased use of incentives as we had anticipated. When compared to prior year, our 2025 margins also include reduced leverage of fixed costs on lower home closing revenue and higher lot costs, both of which were partially offset by savings in direct costs.

本季度，我們展現了利潤率的彈性，儘管銷售環境比我們最初預期的更為嚴峻，但我們仍達到了目標百分比。2025 年第一季房屋成交毛利率為 22%，較 2024 年第一季的 25.8% 下降 380 個基點，反映出我們預期的激勵措施使用增加。與前一年相比，我們的 2025 年利潤率還包括因房屋成交收入降低和地塊成本增加而導致的固定成本槓桿降低，但這兩項成本均被直接成本的節省部分抵消。

During the quarter, we reduced direct cost about 2% per quarter -- per square foot year over year. Our higher volume, combined with our purchasing teams negotiations, translated to additional savings, both the current land values and savings in direct are reflected in our Q2 margin guidance.

在本季度，我們每季度每平方英尺的直接成本年減了約 2%。我們的銷售量增加，加上我們採購團隊的談判，轉化為額外的節省，當前的土地價值和直接節省都反映在我們的第二季利潤率指引中。

Given the cadence of tariff announcements and the evolving start-and-stop nature of these discussions ever since, we don't yet know to what degree, if any, tariff-related cost increases will impact our gross margin in the second half of 2025. However, the current status quo of no tariffs on lumber should get us most of our expected 2025 closings completed at current market lumber prices.

鑑於關稅公告的節奏以及此後這些討論不斷演變的斷斷續續的性質，我們尚不知道與關稅相關的成本增加將在多大程度上（如果有的話）影響我們 2025 年下半年的毛利率。然而，按照目前木材不徵收關稅的現狀，以目前的木材市場價格，我們預計 2025 年的大部分交易應該能夠完成。

Given our increased scale and ongoing efforts to streamline our operations, we are confident in our ability to work with our partners to minimize the impact of supply chain challenges. As a top five builder with limited floor plans and a high level of product visibility, we intend to continue to leverage our bargaining power with national vendors.

鑑於我們規模的擴大和不斷努力簡化運營，我們有信心與合作夥伴一起最大限度地減少供應鏈挑戰的影響。作為擁有有限平面圖和高產品知名度的前五名建築商之一，我們打算繼續利用我們與全國供應商的議價能力。

During the quarter, labor capacity remained consistent as demonstrated by our cycle times remaining stable at our historical average of 120 calendar days. We have not experienced any labor impact from recent immigration actions, and we believe there is slack in the system right now due to slower multifamily construction and reduced starts in the industry.

在本季度，勞動力能力保持一致，這體現在我們的周期時間保持穩定，為歷史平均的 120 個日曆日。近期移民行動並未為我們的勞動力帶來任何影響，而且我們認為，由於多戶型住宅建設放緩以及行業開工減少，目前系統存在疲軟現象。

As a reminder, our long-term gross margin target is still 22.5% to 23.5% under normal market conditions, which is about 300 bps higher than our historical average. We are a larger-scale company with a different operating model today, which we believe permanently improves our gross margin trajectory from our pre-COVID experience.

提醒一下，在正常市場條件下，我們的長期毛利率目標仍為 22.5% 至 23.5%，比我們的歷史平均值高出約 300 個基點。如今，我們是一家規模更大的公司，擁有不同的營運模式，我們相信，這將永久改善我們疫情之前毛利率的走勢。

SG&A as a percentage of home closing revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was 11.3% compared to 10.4% in the first quarter of 2024, primarily as a result of reduced leverage of fixed costs on lower home closing revenue as well as greater spend on technology and start-up overhead costs for our new Gulf Coast and Huntsville division in advance of a full quarter's contribution of home closings. We are confident that our 20,000 closings goal, we will fully leverage our overhead platform and achieve our longer-term SG&A target of 9.5%.

2025 年第一季度，銷售、一般及行政費用佔房屋成交收入的百分比為 11.3%，而 2024 年第一季度為 10.4%，這主要是由於較低的房屋成交收入導致固定成本的槓桿率降低，以及我們新的墨西哥灣沿岸和亨茨維爾分部在一個完整季度的房屋成交貢獻費用之前增加了技術支出。我們有信心實現 20,000 家門市的關閉目標，我們將充分利用我們的管理費用平台，實現 9.5% 的長期銷售、一般及行政費用目標。

Commissions were relatively flat year over year as a percentage of home closing revenue despite the tougher selling environment. We increased our co-broke percentage to 92%, but we're able to secure other offsets as part of our strategic shift to maintain stability in total commission rates. However, if the market slows further, one of our levers is to lean into our external realtor relationships as a small increase in commission rates or bonuses can drive an outsized impact in sales volume.

儘管銷售環境更加艱難，但佣金佔房屋成交收入的百分比與去年同期相比相對持平。我們將共同經紀比例提高到 92%，但作為策略轉變的一部分，我們能夠確保其他補償，以保持總佣金率的穩定。然而，如果市場進一步放緩，我們的槓桿之一就是依靠外部房地產經紀人關係，因為佣金率或獎金的小幅增加可能會對銷售量產生巨大影響。

The financial services profit of $4 million included a de minimis write-off related to rate buydown exploration costs in the first quarter of 2025. The financial services loss of $1 million in the first quarter of 2024 had $6 million of similar write-offs.

400 萬美元的金融服務利潤包括與 2025 年第一季利率降低勘探成本相關的最低限度沖銷。2024 年第一季金融服務損失 100 萬美元，類似的註銷金額為 600 萬美元。

The first quarter's effective income tax rate was 23.3% this year compared to 20.5% for the first quarter of 2024. The higher tax rate in 2025 reflects fewer homes qualifying for energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, given the new higher construction thresholds required to earn the tax credit this year. Overall, lower home closing revenue and gross margins and a higher tax rate led to a 33% year-over-year decrease in first quarter 2025 diluted EPS to $1.69 from $2.53 in 2024.

今年第一季的有效所得稅率為 23.3%，而 2024 年第一季的有效所得稅率為 20.5%。2025 年更高的稅率意味著，根據《通貨膨脹削減法案》，符合能源稅收抵免條件的房屋數量會減少，因為今年獲得稅收抵免所需的建築門檻更高。總體而言，較低的房屋交易收入和毛利率以及較高的稅率導致 2025 年第一季稀釋每股收益同比下降 33%，從 2024 年的 2.53 美元降至 1.69 美元。

Before we move to the balance sheet, I wanted to cover our customers' first-quarter credit metrics. As expected, our buyer profile remained relatively consistent with our historical averages, with FICO scores in the mid-730s and DTI around 41% to 42%. LTVs were still in the mid-80s. This validates our belief that there's still a deep buyer pool that can qualify for our homes and that the hesitation is primarily coming from consumer sentiment and the desire to feel confident about a home purchase decision rather than the inability to afford a monthly payment.

在我們討論資產負債表之前，我想先介紹一下我們客戶第一季的信用指標。正如預期的那樣，我們的買家概況與歷史平均水平保持相對一致，FICO 分數在 730 多分左右，DTI 約為 41% 至 42%。LTV 仍處於 80 年代中期。這證實了我們的信念，即仍然有大量買家有資格購買我們的房屋，而猶豫主要來自消費者情緒和對購房決定充滿信心的願望，而不是無力支付每月的房款。

On to slide 8. We maintained a healthy balance sheet at March 31, 2025, with nothing drawn under our credit facility and a net debt to cap of 13.7%. As we continue to grow our land position, our net debt to cap ceiling remains in the mid-20% range.

轉到投影片 8。截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們的資產負債表保持健康，信貸安排下沒有提領任何款項，淨債務上限為 13.7%。隨著我們繼續擴大土地儲備，我們的淨債務與上限比率仍保持在 20% 左右。

We ended the first quarter with $1 billion in cash compared to $652 million at December 31, 2024, reflecting our new $500 million debt issuance this quarter. Our new 10-year senior notes were priced at an attractive 5.65%, demonstrating the benefits of our investment-grade status and the market's confidence in our sustainable business model. This additional debt offering will help Meritage fund long-term growth trajectory and capital return goals.

我們第一季末的現金為 10 億美元，而 2024 年 12 月 31 日為 6.52 億美元，這反映了我們本季新發行的 5 億美元債務。我們新發行的 10 年期優先票據定價為極具吸引力的 5.65%，彰顯了我們投資級地位的優勢以及市場對我們可持續商業模式的信心。此次額外的債務發行將有助於 Meritage 實現長期成長軌跡和資本回報目標。

Also, as we mentioned on our last call, we completed a 2-for-1 stock split on January 2 this year. We remain consistent in our capital allocation strategy of managing internal growth and return of capital, land acquisition and development spend, net of land development reimbursements totaled $465 million and $363 million for the first two quarters of 2025 and 2024, respectively, a 28% increase year over year. We continue to expect full-year land spend of around $2.5 billion for 2025 in the next several years, but we are mindful of current economic uncertainties and will shift our capital dollars if further market disruptions were to occur.

此外，正如我們在上次電話會議上提到的，我們在今年 1 月 2 日完成了 2 比 1 的股票分割。我們堅持一致的資本配置策略，即管理內部成長和資本回報、土地收購和開發支出，扣除土地開發補償金後，2025 年前兩個季度和 2024 年前兩個季度的總額分別為 4.65 億美元和 3.63 億美元，同比增長 28%。我們繼續預計未來幾年 2025 年全年土地支出約為 25 億美元，但我們注意到當前的經濟不確定性，如果出現進一步的市場混亂，我們將轉移資本支出。

We increased our quarterly cash dividend 15% year over year to $0.43 per share in 2025 from $0.375 per share in 2024. And we spent $45 million to buy back over 600,000 shares in Q1, tripling our $15 million systematic quarterly commitment. We have demonstrated that we can and will repurchase shares opportunistically based on market conditions.

我們將季度現金股利從 2024 年的每股 0.375 美元年增 15% 至 2025 年的每股 0.43 美元。我們在第一季花了 4,500 萬美元回購了 60 多萬股股票，是我們 1,500 萬美元系統性季度承諾金額的三倍。我們已經證明，我們能夠並且將會根據市場情況適時回購股票。

As of March 31, 2025, 264 million remain available to repurchase under our share authorization program. We returned a total of $76 million of cash to shareholders in the first quarter of 2025, continuing to prioritize both internal growth and shareholder returns.

截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，根據我們的股份授權計劃，仍有 2.64 億股可供回購。我們在 2025 年第一季向股東返還了總計 7,600 萬美元的現金，繼續優先考慮內部成長和股東回報。

Slide 9. In the first quarter of 2025, we secured approximately 2,200 net new lots under control, inclusive of the Nashville acquisition lots. This balance is net of about 1,600 lot contracts that we terminated as part of our routine quarterly review.

幻燈片 9。2025 年第一季度，我們獲得了約 2,200 個淨新地塊，其中包括納許維爾收購地塊。該餘額是扣除我們在例行季度審查中終止的約 1,600 份合約後的淨額。

In the first quarter of 2024, we put nearly 6,300 net new lots under control. We have a disciplined land acquisition process where local market dynamics, including our anticipated incentives and pricing are captured in our land underwriting. With our healthy land portfolio, we can increase or pull back on land acquisitions for the next several quarters based on market demand.

2024年第一季度，我們控制了近6,300個淨新地塊。我們擁有一套嚴謹的土地收購流程，其中當地市場動態（包括我們預期的激勵措施和定價）都體現在我們的土地承保中。憑藉我們健康的土地組合，我們可以根據市場需求在未來幾季增加或減少土地收購。

As of March 31, 2025, we owned or controlled a total of about 84,200 lots, equating to 5.4 years supply of the last 12-month closings, but in line with four to five years of forward-looking 2025 demand. We also had over 29,600 lots, and we're still undergoing diligence at the end of the quarter.

截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們總共擁有或控制約 84,200 個地塊，相當於過去 12 個月成交量的 5.4 年供應量，但與 2025 年前瞻性四到五年的需求量一致。我們還有超過 29,600 個地塊，並且在本季末我們仍在進行盡職調查。

As we prepare for our goal of 20,000 closings in 2027, we are actively sourcing both on- and off-balance sheet land to ensure our balance sheet is not overburdened during our growth cycle. About 62% of our total lot inventory at March 31, 2025, was owned and 38% was optioned compared to prior year, where we had a 69% owned inventory and a 31% option lot position.

在我們為實現 2027 年 20,000 家門市的目標做準備的同時，我們正在積極尋找表內和表外土地，以確保我們的資產負債表在增長週期內不會負擔過重。截至 2025 年 3 月 31 日，我們的總地塊庫存中約有 62% 為自有庫存，38% 為選擇庫存，而去年同期我們的自有庫存為 69%，選擇庫存為 31%。

Finally, I'll direct you to slide 10 for our guidance. Looking into the future, there is a greater amount of market uncertainties dependent on the outcomes of pending federal actions. Based on current visibility and market conditions, we are maintaining our full-year 2025 guidance of home closings of 16,250 to 16,750 units and home closing revenue of $6.6 billion to $6.9 billion. As for Q2 2025, we are projecting total closings between 3,800 to 4,100 units, home closing revenue of $1.5 billion to $1.65 billion, home closing gross margin of around 21.5%, an effective tax rate of about 24.5%, and diluted EPS in the range of $1.85 to $2.10.

最後，我將引導您到第 10 張投影片以獲取我們的指導。展望未來，市場不確定性將隨著聯邦政府即將採取的行動而增加。根據目前的知名度和市場狀況，我們維持 2025 年全年房屋成交量 16,250 至 16,750 套、房屋成交收入 66 億至 69 億美元的預期。至於 2025 年第二季度，我們預計總成交量在 3,800 至 4,100 套之間，房屋成交收入在 15 億美元至 16.5 億美元之間，房屋成交毛利率約為 21.5%，有效稅率約為 24.5%，稀釋每股收益在 1.85 美元至 2.10 美元之間。

With that, I'll turn it back over to Phillippe.

說完這些，我會把話題還給菲利普。

Thank you, Hilla. To summarize on slide 11, we are proud of our team's efforts and our first-quarter 2025 operational and financial results, which demonstrated the effectiveness of our new strategy in the challenging housing market. And as our spec building and streamline operations afford us flexibility and efficient cost structure, our business model is resilient in good market conditions and even more critical when the market slows.

謝謝你，希拉。總結第 11 張投影片，我們為團隊的努力以及 2025 年第一季的營運和財務表現感到自豪，這證明了我們的新策略在充滿挑戰的房地產市場中的有效性。由於我們的規格建構和精簡營運為我們提供了靈活性和高效的成本結構，我們的業務模式在良好的市場條件下具有彈性，在市場放緩時更為重要。

We believe that our move-in-ready supply for quick closings and our balanced approach towards pace and price will enable us to optimize returns and grow our market share, while effectively navigating the uncertain economic environment because we are offering consumer affordability and certainty in their homeownership journey.

我們相信，我們可立即入住的快速成交房源以及我們在速度和價格方面的平衡方法將使我們能夠優化回報並擴大我們的市場份額，同時有效地應對不確定的經濟環境，因為我們為消費者提供了可負擔性和購房之旅的確定性。

With that, I will now turn over the call to the operator for instructions on the Q&A. Operator?

現在，我將把電話轉給接線員，以獲取有關問答的指示。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Alan Ratner, Zelman & Associates.

（操作員指示）Alan Ratner，Zelman & Associates。

Hi, guys. Good morning. Nice job in a very tough market. So congrats on the continued progress there. First question on the guidance, I guess. If I look at the midpoint of your range, I think I'm getting to an average closing price of around $410,000, which would be up quite a bit from first quarter levels. And I didn't hear in your comments any real indication of pricing power. So I'm just curious if you could walk us through what the expectation is there?

嗨，大家好。早安.在非常艱難的市場中，我們做得很好。恭喜您繼續取得進展。我想，第一個問題是關於指導的。如果我看一下您的範圍的中點，我認為我得到的平均收盤價約為 410,000 美元，這將比第一季的水平上漲不少。而我在您的評論中沒有聽到任何有關定價權的真正跡象。所以我很好奇，您能否向我們介紹那裡的期望是什麼？

Sure. So if we're looking at our ending backlog, appreciating that our closings were at $393,000 our ending backlog is actually at $405,000. So we're starting to see in our ASP (inaudible) a function of mix. It's not necessarily pricing power, although we have taken price increases in markets that can allow it. So it's a combination of both, but primarily mix.

當然。因此，如果我們查看期末積壓訂單，發現我們的收盤價為 393,000 美元，那麼期末積壓訂單實際上為 405,000 美元。因此，我們開始在 ASP（聽不清楚）中看到混合功能。這不一定是定價權，儘管我們已經在允許的市場中提高了價格。所以它是兩者的結合，但主要是混合。

Got it, okay. That's helpful. And then I guess just more broadly on that as far as the pricing power and the incentive environment. We've heard from a number of builders so far that have had, I would say, more cautious commentary on April activity compared to what you guys expressed and I think a number of them have indicated they're either in the process of increasing incentives or expect to increase incentives to try to get volume jump started.

知道了，好的。這很有幫助。然後我想就定價能力和激勵環境而言，這個問題更加廣泛。到目前為止，我們已經聽到許多建築商的消息，我想說，與你們所表達的相比，他們對 4 月份活動的評論更加謹慎，我認為他們中的許多人表示，他們要么正在增加激勵措施，要么希望增加激勵措施以試圖推動交易量激增。

So I'm curious, as you think -- I know you're not giving margin guidance in the back half of the year. But what is your broad-based expectation for your incentive levels as you get through the spring selling season and ultimately in the seasonally slower months in order to achieve your volume targets?

所以我很好奇，正如您所想的那樣——我知道您不會在下半年給出利潤率指導。但是，在度過春季銷售季並最終在季節性淡季期間實現銷售目標的過程中，您對激勵水平的整體期望是什麼？

Yeah. Thanks, Alan. So as we look into April, where we have one more weekend left and a few days. And as we said in our opening comments, it feels pretty much similar to kind of February and March. So with that being the current trend in the market, that's really our current expectation for Q2.

是的。謝謝，艾倫。展望四月，我們還有一個週末和幾天的時間。正如我們在開場白中所說的那樣，感覺與二月和三月非常相似。因此，鑑於這是當前的市場趨勢，這確實是我們對第二季的當前預期。

As we think about as we move throughout the year, it's hard to tell, right? Rates continue to move up and down. When rates move lower, we see increased demand. When rates move higher, we see softness. So it's hard to say what's going to happen towards the back half of the year. But as we sit here with one weekend left in April, feeling pretty good about Q2. And we just sold 4.5 or 4.4 in Q1 when things were really challenging. So we're pretty confident there.

當我們思考我們全年的進展時，很難說，對嗎？利率持續上下波動。當利率下降時，我們看到需求增加。當利率上升時，我們會看到疲軟。因此很難預測今年下半年會發生什麼事。但當四月只剩下一個週末時，我們對第二季的感覺相當良好。當情況真的很艱難時，我們在第一季只賣了 4.5 或 4.4 輛。所以我們對此非常有信心。

The other piece of this for us is just we have a lot of new communities opening in the back half of the year. We're finally starting to land our community count growth. We're going to have double-digit community count growth by the end of this year. And those communities are opening up in some of our strongest markets.

對我們來說，另一件事就是我們將在今年下半年開設許多新社區。我們的社區數量終於開始成長。到今年年底，我們的社區數量將實現兩位數的成長。這些社區正在我們一些最強大的市場中開放。

And traditionally, our new communities have really strong demand even in nonseasonal times. So that's how we're sort of feeling about the rest of this year and our confidence as we move forward.

傳統上，即使在非季節性，我們的新社區也有非常強勁的需求。這就是我們對今年剩餘時間的感受以及我們對未來前進的信心。

Just to reiterate what Phillippe just said, I know some folks are having to dig deeper on incentives to hit their targeted per store volumes, we hit our targeted per store volume this quarter. So I think that we're comfortable at current incentive threshold. We understand what it is that we need to do to hit that 4-plus target since we were already there in the first quarter.

重申一下菲利普剛才所說的話，我知道有些人必須更深入地挖掘激勵措施才能達到每家店的目標銷量，我們本季就達到了每家店的目標銷量。所以我認為我們對目前的激勵門檻感到滿意。我們知道要達到 4 個以上的目標我們需要做什麼，因為我們在第一季就已經達到了這個目標。

Makes sense. I appreciate the thoughts there, guys. Good luck.

有道理。我很欣賞你們的想法，夥伴們。祝你好運。

Stephen Kim, Evercore ISI.

史蒂芬金 (Stephen Kim)，Evercore ISI。

I guess, continuing that thought. Phillippe, you indicated that new communities are opening up in your strongest market, good sales initially, I guess, right out of the gate. In those markets, sorry -- in those communities, when are we expected to see -- when are we expecting to see the influx of these kinds of communities. Would it be as early as this quarter and the second quarter, or is it more likely to be kind of third quarter or even fourth quarter?

我想，繼續這個想法。菲利普，您曾表示，在您最強大的市場中，正在開闢新的社區，我想，一開始銷售情況就很好。在那些市場中，抱歉——在那些社區中，我們預計什麼時候會看到——我們預計什麼時候會看到這類社區的湧入。最早會在本季和第二季度，還是更有可能在第三季甚至第四季？

And the reason I'm asking is because in order to hit your targeted closings guide, it looks like absorptions need to kind of rise from the level they were in the first quarter. That doesn't usually happen. And so I just wanted to sort of push on that a little bit and see whether or not you could elaborate a little bit more on these new communities coming in?

我之所以問這個問題是因為，為了達到你的目標成交量指南，看起來吸收量需要從第一季的水平上升。這種事通常不會發生。因此，我只是想稍微推進一下這個問題，看看您是否可以更詳細地闡述這些新社區的到來？

Yeah. Definitely a little bit more, although timing of community openings on a quarter-by-quarter basis are very hard to predict. But as we look out over the next three quarters, we're very confident in our double-digit year-over-year growth to end the year and move into the next spring selling season. It should be relatively from where we are to where we want to end, pretty consistent from here. You'll sort of see a stair step up.

是的。肯定會多一點，儘管每季的社區開放時間很難預測。但展望未來三個季度，我們非常有信心在今年年底實現兩位數的年增長，並進入下一個春季銷售旺季。它應該是相對地從我們現在的位置到我們想要結束的位置，從這裡開始相當一致。您會看到一個向上的樓梯。

But obviously, most of the growth is going to come in the second half of the year, third quarter, or fourth quarter, but we're going to be opening up those communities with move-in ready inventory. We're going to be opening up those communities with things that can close within 60 days. And we personally believe that there is a strong demand for that product right now.

但顯然，大部分成長將出現在下半年、第三季或第四季度，但我們將開放那些擁有可立即入住的房源的社區。我們將開放這些社區，並在 60 天內關閉。我們個人認為目前該產品的需求強勁。

So as you're looking at your modeling, my suggestion is that it's more about the community count growth that's driving our full year guidance than it is about us assuming that the market is going to get better.

因此，當您查看模型時，我的建議是，推動我們全年指導的更多的是社區數量增長，而不是我們假設市場會變得更好。

Yeah, that's helpful. Do you guys do much in the way of bulk sales to investors? What percent of your sales were bulk sales to investors? And what should we expect from those kinds of sales on a go-forward basis?

是的，這很有幫助。你們經常向投資者進行大量銷售嗎？您的銷售額中有多少比例是大量銷售給投資者的？那麼，我們對這類銷售的未來該抱持什麼樣的期望呢？

Yeah. I don't have that number in front of us right now. But traditionally, we've always sold somewhere around 5% of our product not to bulk investors but to just investor community, some of them could be bulk, some of them could be just mom-and-pop. And we've never really increased that amount.

是的。我現在還沒有這個數字。但傳統上，我們總是將大約 5% 的產品出售給投資者群體，而不是大宗投資者，其中一些可能是大宗投資者，有些可能是夫妻店投資者。但我們從未真正增加過這個數字。

As we stated in the past, we have done some things with some build-to-rent operators. We continue to try to do that, but that stuff has somewhat slowed here, as you are aware. So we're running probably right around 5% if I had to guess, but we can definitely give you a more accurate number. But I would say it's definitely not increased recently.

正如我們過去所說，我們已經與一些建後出租業者合作做了一些事情。我們將繼續嘗試這樣做，但正如您所知，這項工作在這裡進展有些緩慢。所以如果我必須猜測的話，我們的運行率可能在 5% 左右，但我們絕對可以給你一個更準確的數字。但我想說的是，最近它肯定沒有增加。

Okay, great. That's good to hear. Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate it.

好的，太好了。聽到這個消息真好。非常感謝，大家。非常感謝。

Michael Rehaut, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的麥可雷豪特。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to first just kind of revisit the really -- and hats off to the ability that you've demonstrated to reiterate your guidance amid what other builders are seeing as a decent level of volatility and some downward revisions on both volumes and margin.

謝謝。大家早安。感謝您回答我的問題。首先，我想重新審視一下——在其他建築商看到相當大的波動性以及交易量和利潤率的一些下調的情況下，您表現出了重申指導的能力，對此我表示敬意。

And I wanted to drill down a little bit. You talked in the past about the positioning of your communities. And I was wondering if you could try and dial in to the extent you have the best sense the ability to kind of maintain that targeted sales pace in the face of some of the challenges the industry has seen.

我想進一步深入探討一下。您過去曾談到你們社區的定位。我想知道您是否可以嘗試盡您所能，在面對行業面臨的一些挑戰時，保持目標銷售速度。

If you feel that driven more by your already -- your price point, which is already kind of at the lower end of the range, positioning within markets or the way you go about the incentive levels as well or increase in some of the sales commissions. It could be a combination of all, but just trying to get a sense from your perspective of what's kind of driven the performance year to date from a competitive standpoint?

如果您覺得這更多的是由您的價格點驅動的，您的價格點已經處於範圍的低端，在市場中的定位或您處理激勵水平的方式，或者增加一些銷售佣金。這可能是所有因素的結合，但只是想從您的角度了解從競爭的角度來看，是什麼推動了今年迄今為止的表現？

Yeah, I'll try to answer that a couple of different ways. I think, first of all, our confidence as it relates to maintaining our full year guidance is based on really three factors. The first one is that we just did exactly what we thought we were going to do in Q1. The second is that April is trending positively for us. So we're feeling confident in our Q2.

是的，我會嘗試用幾種不同的方式來回答這個問題。我認為，首先，我們對維持全年指導的信心實際上是基於三個因素。第一個是，我們只是做了第一季想要做的事情。第二，四月我們的發展趨勢是正面的。因此我們對第二季充滿信心。

And the third is that we believe in our double-digit growth in our community count. So that's really our confidence. Our crystal balls are about as murky as everyone else is right now on what the incentive environment is going to look like the rate environment is going to look like as we progress through that. But the fact that we were able just to do what we did in Q1 gives us confidence that we can manage in these conditions.

第三，我們相信我們的社區數量將實現兩位數的成長。這確實是我們的信心。隨著我們不斷推進，我們的預測也越來越模糊，我們無法預測激勵環境和利率環境將會如何。但事實上，我們能夠完成第一季所做的事情，這讓我們有信心在這些條件下進行管理。

As it relates to what we're doing differently, I'm not sure we're doing anything differently than the rest of the folks, they all manage their businesses really, really well. But I do believe that offering move-in-ready inventory is really offering customers something today that is in high demand. They're looking for certainty. They're looking for confidence in their home purchase. And we're able to manage and solve for affordability in a different way with that window. And so my belief is that, that has allowed us to secure the demand that we needed to in Q1. And we're confident as we move forward that it will continue to be that case.

就我們所做的事情的不同而言，我不確定我們所做的事情與其他人有什麼不同，他們都將自己的業務管理得非常非常好。但我確實相信，提供可立即入住的庫存確實為當今的客戶提供了一些需求量很大的產品。他們正在尋求確定性。他們希望對購屋充滿信心。我們能夠利用這個視窗以不同的方式管理和解決負擔能力問題。因此我相信，這使我們能夠確保第一季所需的需求。我們相信，隨著我們不斷前進，這種情況將會持續下去。

Great. Thanks for that, Phillippe. I guess, secondly, you highlighted an acquisition during the quarter of lots or assets. I was wondering if you could kind of speak to perhaps more broadly the M&A backdrop and how you view to the extent that the landscape might have changed over the last three or six months with regards to deal flow, small builders or assets that are on the table and that could be, by the way, also including not just homebuilder operations or smaller private builders in certain markets, but also even in the land market side, if any deals are coming back to the table, people are starting to walk away from things?

偉大的。謝謝你，菲利普。我想，其次，您強調了本季的土地或資產收購。我想知道您是否可以更廣泛地談談併購背景，以及您如何看待過去三到六個月內交易流程、小型建築商或資產方面的情況變化，順便說一句，這可能不僅包括某些市場的房屋建築商或小型私人建築商，甚至還包括土地市場方面，如果有任何交易重新回到談判桌上，人們就會開始放棄嗎？

Yeah. So deal flow is high right now. Well, I'd say there's a lot of deals out there. It does feel like deal flow last year was pretty high. We're working on this one for a while.

是的。因此目前交易流量很高。嗯，我想說有很多交易。確實感覺去年的交易量相當高。我們正在研究這個問題有一段時間了。

It's a small builder called Willow Branch. They're a great operator in the Nashville market, great locations. And it was an all land purchase, which was perfect for us because we could build our product on it. And it was in a market that we feel very, very strongly about. So there's a lot of those out there. We're trying to pick our spots.

這是一家名為 Willow Branch 的小型建築商。他們是納許維爾市場的優秀營運商，地理位置優越。而且這是一筆全土地購買，這對我們來說非常完美，因為我們可以在其上生產我們的產品。我們對這個市場有著非常強烈的感覺。所以有很多這樣的情況。我們正在嘗試選擇我們的位置。

We bought Elliott Homes last year, which got us into the Gulf Coast, which is a market we wanted to be in. And then the ability to double down in Nashville, we thought was a unique opportunity on some really great locations. So we'll continue to look at all that stuff.

我們去年收購了 Elliott Homes，因此進入了墨西哥灣沿岸市場，這也是我們一直想進入的市場。然後，我們認為能夠在納許維爾加倍投入是一個在一些真正偉大的地點進行投資的獨特機會。因此我們會繼續關注這些內容。

I think there's going to be a lot of that stuff out there. It's hard to underwrite stuff today, and I think it's getting harder with the current sort of uncertainty that's out there, incentives running as high as they are. So land isn't getting any cheaper, and these builders believe that their land has a lot of value. So it's getting more challenged to underwriting. In the land market, I would say the same thing.

我認為那裡會有很多這樣的東西。如今承保很困難，而且我認為，考慮到目前存在的不確定性和高昂的激勵措施，承保會變得越來越困難。因此，土地價格並沒有變得更便宜，而這些建築商認為他們的土地具有很高的價值。因此承保面臨的挑戰越來越大。在土地市場，我也會說同樣的話。

What we are seeing with the current kind of uncertainty in the market is there is an opportunity to renegotiate. We're seeing the ability to renegotiate terms mostly push deals out, take them down over a longer period of time.

我們看到，當前市場存在的不確定性意味著重新談判的機會。我們看到，重新談判條款的能力大多會推遲交易，並在更長的時間內將其取消。

And in some cases, we are seeing some price concessions, but not a ton just yet. If this were to continue, I would expect to see more of that. We walked away from 1,600 lots in Q1. A lot of that was because the sellers wouldn't renegotiate and we felt like we needed to get that land at a lower price to make the current environment work. So we'll see how that goes as we go along here.

在某些情況下，我們看到了一些價格優惠，但目前還不是很多。如果這種情況繼續下去，我預計會看到更多這樣的情況。我們在第一季放棄了 1,600 個地塊。這在很大程度上是因為賣家不願意重新談判，而我們覺得需要以更低的價格獲得土地才能讓當前環境發揮作用。因此，我們將觀察事情進展如何。

But land is traditionally sticky. They're very patient. They'll wait for the market to get better. I don't think anyone thinks that this is going to be a multiyear event at this point. If it's not a multiyear event, land sellers are going to hold on to their land prices.

但土地傳統上是黏性的。他們非常有耐心。他們會等待市場好轉。我認為目前沒有人會認為這將是一個持續多年的事件。如果這不是持續多年的事件，土地賣家將會維持其土地價格。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Trevor Allinson, Wolfe Research.

特雷弗·阿林森（Trevor Allinson），沃爾夫研究公司。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Phillippe, I wanted to follow up on the comments you were just making about early reads on your realtor and buyer appetite for the 60-day move-in guarantee. Have you seen the mix of realtor attachment rates that you guys were anticipating with that in markets that you are seeing higher level of resale inventory. Are you guys finding your 60-day guarantee to be a competitive advantage in those markets, and that's perhaps what's differentiating you to some degree in this current market?

嗨，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。菲利普，我想跟進一下你剛才關於房地產經紀人和買家對 60 天入住保證的興趣的評論。您是否看到了您所預期的房地產經紀人附加率的組合，在您所看到的轉售庫存水平較高的市場中。你們是否認為 60 天保證在這些市場中是一種競爭優勢，這也許在某種程度上是你們在當前市場中的差異化優勢？

Well, our co-broke is now 92%, which means we're obviously partnering with the realtors more strongly than we were when we were 75%, but that's intentional as part of our strategy, it's our commitment to those folks. We believe a lot of those folks drive the activity on the existing home market, and we're giving them the opportunity to do more business with us, which is really the goal.

嗯，我們的合作經紀人比例現在是 92%，這意味著我們與房地產經紀人的合作顯然比 75% 時更加緊密，但這是我們策略的一部分，也是我們對這些人的承諾。我們相信，其中許多人推動了現有房屋市場的活動，我們為他們提供了與我們開展更多業務的機會，這才是我們真正的目標。

Look, I think the competitive advantage with resale is that we're a new home. As we're a new home. We build our homes energy efficient. No one's lived in them. You can get them the way you want it in a brand-new community, hopefully in really good school districts. And we can solve for your payment with rate buydowns and those type of things. So I think that really creates the competitive advantage.

看，我認為轉售的競爭優勢在於我們是新房子。因為我們是一個新家。我們建造節能的房屋。沒有人住在裡面。您可以按照自己的意願在一個全新的社區中找到它們，最好是在非常好的學區。我們可以透過利率降低和諸如此類的方式解決您的付款問題。所以我認為這確實創造了競爭優勢。

The additional cherry on top, if you will, is the 60-day move-in-ready kind of commitment and the move-in-ready homes, which helps realtors help their customers with the process. When they can tell their customer that the home is going to be done, done, done, ready for them to move in.

如果您願意的話，額外的亮點是 60 天的可立即入住承諾和可立即入住的房屋，這有助於房地產經紀人幫助他們的客戶完成整個流程。當他們可以告訴客戶房子已經裝修完畢，準備讓他們搬進去的時候。

There's going to be no compromise in their lifestyle and there's a guarantee behind that, that's a really strong selling tool for our realtors with the customers they're bringing to us. And I do think that creates a competitive advantage against the resale market.

他們的生活方式絕對不會妥協，而且背後有保證，這對我們的房地產經紀人和他們為我們帶來的客戶來說是一個非常強大的銷售工具。我確實認為這會在轉售市場上創造競爭優勢。

Just one more point, Trevor, maybe we'll start sharing this next quarter. Part of the reason that we got to the 4.4 net sales per month is not just the 92% co-broke, it's that the repeat business from those same agents. It's not individual transactions with -- one-time transactions with the broker, it's multiple transactions with the same set of brokers who are seeing us as a partner and bringing their customers to us instead of us having to solicit business from them.

還有一點，特雷弗，也許我們會在下個季度開始分享這一點。我們每月實現 4.4 筆淨銷售額的部分原因不僅是 92% 的合作代理，還在於來自同一代理商的重複業務。這不是與經紀人進行的單筆交易——一次性交易，而是與同一組經紀人進行的多次交易，他們將我們視為合作夥伴並將他們的客戶帶給我們，而不是我們向他們招攬業務。

So I mean, we will start sharing some of those stats in future periods about the repeat business versus just the co-broke percentage, that's really kind of the advantage that we're seeing with our strategic sales.

所以我的意思是，我們將在未來時期開始分享一些關於重複業務與共同經紀百分比的統計數據，這確實是我們在策略銷售中看到的優勢。

Yeah, that would be very helpful. And it sounds like the strategy is having a lot of its desired impacts. Second question is you are really the only builder in recent weeks, who's maintained your full year guidance. It's encouraging. It sounds like you're also hearing labor loosen up. So just with the softer market overall, are you expecting to see more direct cost savings with your trades moving forward?

是的，那將會非常有幫助。聽起來該策略已經取得了許多預期的效果。第二個問題是，您確實是最近幾週唯一一家維持全年指導的建築商。這令人鼓舞。聽起來你也聽到了分娩放鬆的聲音。那麼，在整體市場疲軟的情況下，您是否預期未來交易將帶來更多直接成本節約？

And then from an order of magnitude standpoint, do you think it's possible that these direct cost savings could be enough to offset any potential tariff impacts whenever those may occur?

然後從數量級的角度來看，您是否認為這些直接成本節省足以抵消任何可能發生的潛在關稅影響？

Yeah, that's a great question. Really too early to tell. Currently, labor is performing extremely well. As Hilla mentioned in her comments, we think there's slack in the system because people have pulled back on starts. Multifamily continues to be slow for now.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。現在說還太早。目前，勞動力表現極為良好。正如希拉在評論中提到的那樣，我們認為系統存在鬆弛現象，因為人們已經減少了開始工作。目前，多戶型住宅的發展仍然緩慢。

So we expect labor to continue to perform well. The supply chain is somewhat of an unknown. As we sit here today, we haven't layered any tariffs into our forecast because we don't have any cost increase that have been delivered to us in certainty. There's been a lot of communication from our vendors of what might come or what might not come. So we're waiting to see.

因此我們預計勞動力將繼續表現良好。供應鏈在某種程度上是未知的。今天，我們還沒有將任何關稅納入我們的預測中，因為我們還不確定會產生什麼成本增加。我們的供應商已經就哪些產品可能出現或哪些產品可能不會出現進行了大量溝通。所以我們拭目以待。

But I think we're very confident right now in our ability to kind of navigate that cost environment. We're the fifth largest homebuilder. So the relationships we have today with our national vendors are very strong. They provide us more price certainty and clarity because of our scale. Our streamlined operating model allows us to pull in different products if things get stuck in supply chain, our vendors are allowed to replace those products with other products that are similar.

但我認為，我們現在對自己應對這種成本環境的能力非常有信心。我們是第五大房屋建築商。因此，我們今天與國家供應商的關係非常牢固。由於我們的規模，他們為我們提供更多的價格確定性和清晰度。我們的精簡營運模式使我們能夠引入不同的產品，如果供應鏈出現問題，我們的供應商可以用其他類似產品替換這些產品。

You got to remember, we're 100% spec builder. So the customer isn't picking out what's going in the homes. We're picking out what goes in the home. So as long as the home looks good, our customers happy. They don't have their buyers' remorse if they don't get the carpet they picked out.

你必須記住，我們是 100% 規格建造者。因此，顧客無法決定家裡要發生什麼事。我們正在挑選家裡需要的東西。所以只要房子看起來美觀，我們的客戶就會滿意。如果他們沒有買到自己挑選的地毯，他們不會感到後悔。

And then finally, we have almost 8,000 homes. We just closed another 35 or so. So the next three starts -- for the next four months or so starts are going to go out here at today's cost, we believe which really secures our 2025 year. So tariffs are probably going to be more of a 2026 thing for us. If all of that happens the way I just stated. And that's kind of currently what we're forecasting our business to be.

最後，我們有近 8,000 戶家庭。我們剛剛關閉了另外 35 個左右。因此，接下來的三次開工——接下來的四個月左右的開工將以今天的成本進行，我們相信這確實確保了我們 2025 年的開工。因此，對我們來說，關稅很可能要到 2026 年才會生效。如果這一切都按照我剛才所說的方式發生。這就是我們目前對業務的預測。

Appreciate all the color, and good luck moving forward.

欣賞所有的色彩，祝你未來好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Susan Maklari, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的蘇珊馬克拉里 (Susan Maklari)。

Good morning. This is Charles Perron on for Susan. Thanks for taking my question. First, I want to talk a little bit about the balancing between price and pace should market conditions soften from here. Can you talk about your flexibility in the ramp up community count if you would be willing to pull back on some of these coming in this year against maybe leveraging your incentive to maximize return to ensure that you're meeting your absorption targets across your communities?

早安.我是查爾斯·佩隆，代替蘇珊。感謝您回答我的問題。首先，我想談談如果市場狀況從現在開始走弱，價格和節奏之間的平衡問題。如果您願意在今年減少一些社區數量，或利用您的激勵措施來最大化回報，以確保您滿足所有社區的吸收目標，您能否談談您在增加社區數量方面的靈活性？

I think there might have been two questions there around pace and price and how we think about that if conditions were to deteriorate. I guess, we're always going to go out there and focus on trying to get four net sales per month as our base pace, and then we're going to maximize returns from there. We were able to just again, achieve 4.4 in what I believe to be very difficult market conditions and then execute on 22% margins, which I think is pretty solid in what we thought we were going to do. And it feels, again, similar to what we're dealing with here in Q2.

我認為可能有兩個問題，關於速度和價格，以及如果情況惡化我們該如何看待這些問題。我想，我們會一直努力，並專注於嘗試以每月實現四筆淨銷售額作為我們的基本速度，然後我們將從那裡最大化回報。我們能夠在我認為非常困難的市場條件下再次實現 4.4 的業績，然後實現 22% 的利潤率，我認為這與我們所設想的目標非常吻合。而且，這感覺與我們在第二季度遇到的情況類似。

As we move into the back half of the year, if things were to get worse, we're going to focus on getting four net sales per month and then maximize returns from there. That's the baseline. I think the other question was what would we do with our community openings? Nothing. Our community openings are scheduled based on when we have the lots and when we have the homes in production, and we're going to open those up based on that, not based on market conditions.

隨著我們進入下半年，如果情況變得更糟，我們將專注於每月實現四筆淨銷售額，然後從中最大化回報。這是底線。我認為另一個問題是我們將如何利用我們的社區開放？沒有什麼。我們的社區開放時間是根據我們何時有地塊以及何時有房屋投入生產來安排的，我們將根據這些來開放，而不是根據市場情況。

When we open up new communities, we typically do really, really well no matter what the market conditions are. We believe strongly in the land that we bought and those -- where those communities are going to be opening up. So there wouldn't be anything -- any pullback in our community count growth. But again, if incentive -- if the rates go higher, or there's a lot more uncertainty or consumer confidence continues to deteriorate, we're going to figure out and solve for four net sales per month and then maximize our margins from there.

當我們開闢新社區時，無論市場狀況如何，我們通常都會做得非常好。我們堅信，我們購買的土地和那些社區將會開放。因此，我們的社區數量成長不會有任何倒退。但是，如果激勵措施——如果利率上升，或者存在更多不確定性，或者消費者信心繼續惡化，我們將計算並解決每月四次淨銷售額的問題，然後從那裡最大化我們的利潤率。

Yeah. Just to clarify, our communities are not cannibalizing -- our new communities are not cannibalizing existing communities, they're complementary. So having any sort of pause on rolling out new community openings doesn't really make sense. It's additive. It's not a substitution.

是的。需要澄清的是，我們的社區不會相互蠶食——我們的新社區不會蠶食現有社區，它們是互補的。因此，暫停新的社區開放政策實際上沒有任何意義。它是添加劑。這不是替代。

Got it. That's super helpful color. And I understand you don't have a lot of visibility on potential tariffs. But I guess my question is more on the risk from those potential tariffs across the supply chain for you. You obviously made significant improvement in cycle and time over the last few years.

知道了。這是非常有用的顏色。我知道你對潛在關稅的了解並不多。但我想我的問題更多的是關於整個供應鏈中潛在關稅帶來的風險。顯然，在過去的幾年裡，你在周期和時間方面取得了顯著的進步。

And how would you address the risk of potential supply chain disruption from tariffs? And how would you be preparing ahead of that to make sure that you could keep your production pace intact?

您如何應對關稅可能造成的供應鏈中斷風險？您將如何提前做好準備以確保保持生產節奏不變？

Yeah. I think you're 100% right. There's a lot of risk out there. We're communicating constantly with our vendors. We have day-to-day conversations with those folks, both locally and at the national level.

是的。我認為你百分之百正確。那裡存在著很多風險。我們一直在與供應商保持溝通。我們每天都與這些人對話，無論是在地方層級或國家層級。

So our main plan is to overcommunicate, so we understand what's coming so that we can plan accordingly. But we're committed to our starts, which I think is critical. If we don't continue to start homes, we don't have move-in-ready inventory and we don't really have the ability to execute on our strategy.

因此，我們的主要計劃是過度溝通，以便我們了解即將發生的事情，從而做出相應的計劃。但我們致力於開始，我認為這至關重要。如果我們不繼續建造房屋，我們就沒有可立即入住的庫存，也沒有能力執行我們的策略。

So that commitment from us on the starts allows them to plan their business accordingly and we're overcommunicating. And then if things are changing out there in the future, we could hopefully source from different places and come up with substitute products where possible and just continue to plan our business.

因此，我們從一開始就所做的承諾使他們能夠相應地規劃他們的業務，並且我們也進行了過度溝通。如果未來情況發生變化，我們希望能夠從不同的地方採購，並盡可能提供替代產品，然後繼續規劃我們的業務。

So we're not immune to these tariffs any more than any other folks out there, both inside of industry and outside of industry. But we're just trying to be more strategic, and I think we have the ability to kind of plan out our business a little bit differently given our strategy.

因此，我們與其他任何人（無論是行業內還是行業外）一樣，並不能夠免受這些關稅的影響。但我們只是試圖變得更具策略性，我認為我們有能力根據我們的策略以稍微不同的方式規劃我們的業務。

John Lovallo, UBS.

瑞銀的約翰·洛瓦洛。

Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I guess the first one is I just wanted to go back and maybe put a finer point on what Steve and Mike were getting at. To achieve the midpoint of the 2025 outlook, it seems like you need to sell about 11,000 more homes in the remainder of the year. And I get the fact that the community count is ramping nicely, but it does still seem like it would assume better-than-normal seasonality and absorption. I just want to make sure that we're thinking about that right? And if so, what sort of gives you confidence in the ability to execute on that?

早安，大家。感謝您回答我的問題。我想第一個是我只是想回顧一下，也許可以更詳細地闡述史蒂夫和麥克想要表達的意思。為了實現 2025 年預期的中點，似乎需要在今年剩餘時間內再銷售約 11,000 套房屋。我知道社區數量正在穩步增長，但似乎仍然需要比正常情況更好的季節性和吸收率。我只是想確保我們正在考慮這個問題，對嗎？如果是的話，什麼讓您有信心實現這一目標？

Yeah. Thanks, John. So it's definitely not better than normal seasonality. We would say the number one driver in that number is the increased community count. So just the timing of when you're modeling it and the volume of that increase is driving the majority of that performance.

是的。謝謝，約翰。所以它肯定不會比正常的季節性更好。我們認為，推動這一數字成長的首要因素是社區數量的增加。因此，建模的時間和增加的數量決定了大部分性能。

The other piece, and Phillippe mentioned this, I'll just mention it one more time, we typically seem to have a pop in volume when we open up a community. So in a normal month, maybe we're doing four. When you open up a community for the first time, it tends to be more than four. There's excitement and engagement around the first release of lots in a new community. So if we have a high volume of communities opening up, they will have a higher absorption rate in the month of opening.

另一點，菲利普也提到了這一點，我再提一次，當我們開放一個社區時，我們的音量通常會突然增大。因此，在正常月份裡，我們可能會做四個。當你第一次開放一個社群時，它往往會有四個以上的成員。新社區首次發布地塊時，人們感到興奮和投入。因此，如果我們開放大量社區，那麼它們在開放月份的吸收率就會更高。

It's not a seasonality change or something that we're seeing is market driven. It's the fact that it's a new community opening. So the fact that we have a lot of these communities opening will have a larger pop in that initial month is driving the confidence we have to the full-year number.

我們看到的並不是季節性變化，也不是市場驅動的變化。事實是，這是一個新社區的開放。因此，許多此類社區的開幕將在第一個月迎來更大的成長，這一事實增強了我們對全年數據的信心。

Okay. That's helpful. And then if we think about just the gross margin guide of 21.5% in the second quarter, I mean with 60% of your sales intra-quarter, it seems like you would have a pretty real-time view on gross margins. So I guess the question is, are you seeing the 21.5% now, or is that baking in a little cushion for potentially having to offer a greater level of incentives?

好的。這很有幫助。然後，如果我們只考慮第二季 21.5% 的毛利率指導，我的意思是，由於 60% 的銷售額來自季度內，因此您似乎可以對毛利率有相當即時的了解。所以我想問題是，您現在看到的是 21.5% 嗎，或者這是否為可能提供更高水平的激勵措施預留了一點緩衝空間？

We're not too far from the end of what we're going to do, right? Everything is in backlog, and we're three weeks in, a little over three weeks into the quarter. We only have a couple more weeks of volume that's still going to close in the current quarter. So yes, I mean, this is live. You're seeing it live.

我們距離要做的事情的結束已經不遠了，對吧？所有事情都積壓了，我們已經進入第三週，本季已經過了三週多一點。我們只剩下幾週的交易量將在本季結束。是的，我的意思是，這是現場直播。您正在現場觀看。

Our current strategy is very real time numbers. So what you're seeing today is what we're experiencing. We have a high level of confidence in that number.

我們目前的策略是即時數字。所以您今天所看到的就是我們正在經歷的。我們對這個數字非常有信心。

Great. Thank you, guys.

偉大的。謝謝你們。

Carl Reichardt, BTIG.

卡爾·賴哈特（Carl Reichardt），BTIG。

So what percentage, Hilla, of your current option mix, I think it's like 32,000 lots is from land sellers, JVs vs land bankers. And I know Phillippe talked about land being sticky, but how do you think about the owned option mix on a go-forward basis given the choppiness in the market where opportunities might be and what the cost of these lots or the cost to option might be?

那麼，希拉，您目前的選擇組合中，有多少比例，我認為大約有 32,000 塊地來自土地賣家、合資企業和土地銀行。我知道菲利普談到土地的黏性，但考慮到市場波動性，您如何看待未來的自有選擇權組合，以及可能存在哪些機會，以及這些地塊的成本或選擇權成本是多少？

So we said we're comfortable around that 40%. I mean, 4-0 is not a magic number, a little bit above, a little bit below. It feels like the right number for us. We're trying to remain aware of what's happening in the market today, and we'd like to take everything off book that we could, although we appreciate that there's a margin pull when you do that and in today's uncertain environment, it seems a little riskier than what we'd like to go very, very deep into off-balance sheet, although we're definitely comfortable doing a little bit more than where we are today.

所以我們說我們對這個 40% 左右感到滿意。我的意思是，4-0 並不是一個神奇的數字，稍微高一點，稍微低一點。對我們來說，這個數字似乎是正確的。我們試圖時刻關注當今市場的情況，並希望盡可能地將所有業務從表外轉移，儘管我們知道這樣做會產生保證金壓力，並且在當今不確定的環境下，這似乎比我們想要的深入表外業務更具風險，儘管我們絕對願意比現在做得更多一些。

But I think you raised a great point, Carl, which is all off book is not truly off book. We're not paying a land banker lift on all the off-book lots. There is not 38%, 39% that's off book at a very high premium. To us, a lot of that is just structured terms with our sellers. We have very good relationships and fantastic land teams on the ground that are negotiating structured takes with the initial seller. So most of those don't have a heavy lift.

但是我認為你提出了一個很好的觀點，卡爾，所有不按套路出牌的事情都不是真正的不按套路出牌。我們不會為所有帳外地塊支付土地銀行的溢價。不存在 38%、39% 的非常高溢價的帳外交易。對我們來說，其中許多只是與賣家達成的結構化條款。我們與當地有著良好的關係，並且擁有出色的土地團隊，他們正在與初始賣家協商結構化收購。因此，其中大多數都不需要承擔沉重的負擔。

The percentage that's true third-party charging us a fee to take something off book is a very small percentage of that true off-balance sheet number that we've given.

第三方向我們收取的費用（用於從帳面扣除某些款項）占我們提供的真實表外金額的一小部分。

Okay, great. I appreciate that. And then to go back to something you said and also Trevor asked about, which is slack in the labor pool. I mean, the worry was immigration reform would create problems with availability or cost and now it's feeling maybe the opposite is occurring. Can you maybe specify, there some specific regions in the country where the slack is most noticeable and some specific trades where it is?

好的，太好了。我很感激。然後回到您所說的話以及 Trevor 詢問的話題，即勞動資源的疲軟。我的意思是，人們擔心移民改革會造成可用性或成本方面的問題，但現在感覺可能正在發生相反的情況。您能否具體說明一下，在國內哪些特定地區，產能過剩最為明顯，以及哪些特定產業產能過剩？

Yeah. You're right. I think we all were very concerned about how immigration might impact the labor pool specifically in construction and specifically in the South, where I think it's acute. And as of right now, we haven't seen that. I think, again, part of it is just the pullback on starts, and we're not all increasing starts from here, which has created that opportunity.

是的。你說得對。我認為我們都非常擔心移民會對勞動資源產生怎樣的影響，特別是建築業，特別是在南方，我認為那裡的情況非常嚴重。但截至目前，我們還沒有看到這種情況。我認為，部分原因在於開工率的回落，而且我們並沒有從現在開始增加開工率，這創造了這個機會。

So for now, it's business as usual. Our cycle times seem to be remaining consistent with what we reported. As it relates to other specific regions or categories, they're not really. Generally, everything is sort of status quo right now. We're not seeing it impact framers differently than foundation folks different than roofers. As of right now, it's kind of a steady state across all that.

所以目前一切照常。我們的周期時間似乎與我們報告的保持一致。至於與其他特定區域或類別的關係，事實並非如此。整體而言，目前一切都維持現狀。我們沒有發現它對框架工人、地基工人和屋頂工人的影響有什麼不同。截至目前，一切都處於穩定狀態。

Thanks, Phillippe. Thanks, Hilla.

謝謝，菲利普。謝謝，希拉。

Alex Barron, Housing Research Center.

住房研究中心的亞歷克斯·巴倫。

I guess I wanted to ask some of your bigger competitors who are doing also specs and focused on entry level seem to be lean heavily on price cutting. So I'm wondering how you guys are dealing with that? Or can you avoid it, or can you just deal with it through offering lower interest rates to not do that?

我想問一下你們的一些較大的競爭對手，他們也有規格，並且專注於入門級，似乎嚴重依賴降價。所以我想知道你們是怎麼處理這個問題的？或者你能避免這種情況嗎，或者你可以透過提供較低的利率來解決這個問題嗎？

Yeah, great question. Again, it's community by community, depending on where we are and who our customer is and who our competitors are. We have places where we're adjacent to some of those competitors you referred to, and we have to adjust accordingly. But generally, we're not really cutting prices across our business. We're solving and competing with those folks through rate buydowns and some other incentives that we're using with external realtors, et cetera.

是的，很好的問題。再次強調，這要根據社群而定，取決於我們在哪裡、我們的客戶是誰以及我們的競爭對手是誰。我們的位置與您提到的一些競爭對手相鄰，因此我們必須做出相應的調整。但總體而言，我們並沒有真正降低整個業務的價格。我們正在透過利率降低和與外部房地產經紀人等使用的一些其他激勵措施來解決這些問題並與這些人競爭。

So for now, we don't have a lot to report on actual price cutting. But at the end of the day, I think incentives are the same as a price cut. It's all, what's the house price. But the main tool we're using is rate buydowns, affordability and payment seem to be the key to all of it. And as long as we can solve for payment, and provide that 60-day move-in window, we're able to compete without cutting our prices as we sit here today.

因此目前，我們還沒有太多關於實際降價的消息可以報導。但最終，我認為激勵措施與降價是一樣的。都這樣了，房價多少。但我們使用的主要工具是利率降低，可負擔性和支付能力似乎是這一切的關鍵。只要我們能解決付款問題，並提供 60 天的入住期限，我們就能夠在不降低價格的情況下競爭。

Yeah. Alex, cutting -- at the end of the day, a customer is trying to solve for a monthly payment, right. The price of the home is a headline number, but can they afford the monthly payment. So a price cut does not go as far in your monthly payment as a reduction in interest rate that you can get through a rate buy down.

是的。亞歷克斯，說到底，客戶正在試圖解決每月的付款問題，對吧。房價是一個重要數字，但他們能負擔每月的還款嗎？因此，降價不會像降低利率那樣減少您的每月還款額。

So for us, offering a rate buydown help the customer solve the affordability question much, much more efficiently, cost us a lot less money than trying to reduce the price down to a monthly payment that makes sense. So I think that we're kind of combating against those offers with the right monthly payments through interest rate buydowns.

因此，對我們來說，提供利率降低可以幫助客戶更有效地解決負擔能力問題，比試圖將價格降低到合理的每月付款要花費更少的錢。因此，我認為我們正在透過降低利率來支付正確的月供，以對抗這些提議。

And I really believe that's where that balanced approach is most important. If you're in a situation where you have to cut your prices dramatically to solve for that four net sales per month, maybe that's not the right decision for that community depending on all the competitive, what's going on with competitors and how much your land costs and whatnot. So that's really how you need to find that balance, if you can solve for four without cutting your prices, that's a much better outcome.

我確實相信，平衡的方法才是最重要的。如果你必須大幅降低價格才能解決每月四次淨銷售的問題，那麼這可能對那個社區來說不是正確的決定，這取決於所有的競爭、競爭對手的情況以及你的土地成本等等。所以這才是真正需要找到平衡點的方法，如果你能在不降低價格的情況下解決四個問題，那麼結果會好得多。

Yeah. No. I mean I agree with you, 110%, which is why I'm surprised they're going in that route because mathematically and financially, it makes a ton more sense to buy down the rate like I saw you guys in Texas offering 4.5%, which is great for the consumer, and it goes a long way towards making the payment affordable. But nearby, there's competitors cutting prices, 10%, which I'm like why are they doing that? It doesn't make sense to me, but then I think it puts pressure on you and other builders as people see like, oh, that guy's offering a lower price. I guess until you convince them that you're offering a better lower payment.

是的。不。我的意思是，我完全同意你的觀點，這就是為什麼我很驚訝他們會選擇這條路線，因為從數學和財務角度來看，降低利率更有意義，就像我看到你們在德克薩斯州提供的 4.5% 那樣，這對消費者來說非常好，而且對於降低還款負擔有很大幫助。但附近有競爭對手降價 10%，我很好奇他們為什麼要這麼做？對我來說這沒有意義，但我認為這會給你和其他建築商帶來壓力，因為人們會看到，哦，那個人提供的價格更低了。我想，直到你說服他們你提供的是更好的、更低的付款方式。

Yeah. So far, we haven't had to operate that way, but we're not immune to a bunch of competitors around us cutting prices. But for now, we've been able to achieve our four net sales per month without having to cut prices.

是的。到目前為止，我們還沒有採取那種方式運營，但我們也無法避免周圍一大批競爭對手的降價。但目前，我們無需降價就能實現每月四筆淨銷售額。

Okay. Well, best of luck, guys. Thank you.

好的。好吧，祝大家好運。謝謝。

Thank you so much. Is there one more, operator?

太感謝了。還有一個嗎，接線生？

No, there are no further questions.

不，沒有其他問題了。

Okay. Thank you so much, operator. I'd like to thank everyone who joined this call today for your continued interest in Meritage Homes. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a great weekend. Thank you.

好的。非常感謝您，接線生。我要感謝今天參加這次電話會議的所有人對 Meritage Homes 的持續關注。我們希望您度過愉快的一天並度過一個愉快的週末。謝謝。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。