Irvine homebuilder Standard Pacific Corp. reported worse than expected orders for new homes in April and May, though its California operations showed signs of improvement.
New home orders, where buyers enter a pact to purchase a Standard Pacific home, were down 16% from the year-ago period, the homebuilder said on Monday.
They were off nearly 20% from the company’s business plan for the period.
The decrease in orders was driven by continued weakness in two of its key markets, Florida and Arizona.
Orders were up over 13% in California with an increase in the number of developments Standard Pacific was building at.
One positive trend: the company’s cancellation rate for the April and May was 28%, down from 35% in the year earlier period.
In California, the cancellation rate, where buyers back out of a purchase, was 29%, compared to 42% during the same period last year.
