Saturday, March 10, 2007

America's Largest Homebuilder: "2007 Is Going To Suck"


During times of trial one must often pause in order to appreciate the profound eloquence of American finest business leaders such as Mr. Donald J. Tomnitz, CEO of D.R. Horton, the largest home builder by volume in the United States.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

one of two things:

(1) end of the world; hard landing; bank failures
(2) slowdown; plateau; soft landing

No one and I mean no one is predicting a quick turnaround. Which seems odd because we have etremely low unemployment, record corporate profits, rising incomes, falling interest rates, etc.

They way the stock market works is that when everyone is leaning the same way, the stock moves in the opposite direction.

Anonymous said...

The subprime market is about to explode and it will bring the entire mortgage industry down with it.

http://economicdespair.blogspot.com

HB Bear said...

You have to love this kind of candor from a CEO. Let's face it, the guy has the balls to call it like he sees it and damn the torpedos. Him, I like.

But, more importantly, I find myself thinking that I could TRUST this guy. Unlike most in the RE industry at this point, he's not trying to sell me some BS, pie-in-the-sky rhetoric about why I should buy a home now so he can land a couple of transaction. He's looking at the longer term, recognizing the fact that what he says today will be remembered tomorrow. He KNOWS that his reputation and credibility are on the line and he's behaving like a professional and telling like it is.

There's a saying in the Sales profession:

You buy from people you trust.
You trust the people you like.

When I buy my home, you can be it be from parties I trust. Case in point, if I decided to buy new, my first stop is going to be at a D R Horton development. They have earned to right to try and win my business. These other developers? No so much.

The same logic applies when you are buying an existing home. Why buy a home from a realtor where they're trying BS you about the market? If they're not being honest about the market, what else aren't they telling you? When a realtor tries to pump up the market, he is acting in HIS interest not YOUR interests. This ought to be a HUGE red-flag for you and send you packing.

Markus Arelius said...

I'm not so sure that we aren't seeing the beginning of something awful for the country. If we were a nation full of robust savers and tremendously productive workers, I might feel differently. All it might require is for foreign investors and supporters of the dollar to start selling and things could get very, very ugly indeed.