Toll Brothers, the luxury home builder, swung to a loss for its fiscal fourth quarter which ended October 31, 2007.  This was Toll Brothers first quarterly loss in 21 years.  They are arguably the best run of the national home builders and even they have finally had to succumb to the slowdown.

“By many measures, Fiscal 2007 was the most challenging of the forty years that Toll Brothers has been in business,” Robert Toll, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “1974 was perhaps rougher, but the difficult times only lasted one year.”

Highlights of the earnings report includes:

• Net loss of $81.8 million compared to a net income of $173.8 million a year ago
• Loss included writedowns of $314.9 for homes they will have to sell at a loss
• Revenue fell by 35% to $1.17 billion for the quarter
• Net signed contracts fell by 48% to $365.3 million
• The company expects to deliver between 3,900 – 5,100 homes in 2008 priced between $630,000 – $650,000 (note: this is 3 times the median price of a home in America today which is $207,800 according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest report).

Toll Brothers was late to the party here in the Twin Cities.  They have developments in Eagan and Maple Grove as was noted by my post earlier this year.