MDC Holding's CEO and Chair Larry Mizel recently talked with Wall Street analysts about the company and the homebuilding industry. According to Inside Real Estate News, The Richmond Homes parent has '$800 million in cash on its balance sheet, a 52% year-over-year increase in its lot supply and improving margins.' 

And, Mizel said, whatever is thrown in the homebuilders' direction — from changing government reglations to construction delays, credit challenges and the reality of new normal being slower growth — he just deals with it. "Over four decades, whatever happened, we've figured it out," Mizel said. And because it's impossible to know what regulators are going to do, or the effects those decisions will have on the homebuilding industry, MDC has been rolling with the punches since it was founded in 1972. 

When he commented that market conditions have eased up on land purchases, analysts asked if that meant MDC is shifting its strategy to buying finished lots. He simply quipped, "No, it means we're open for business."

Later in the interview, when talking about the tough credit conditions that continue to persist, he observed that if homebuyers didn't read the paper or watch TV, "I think things would be a lot better." Read more...