Ryland chief says housing market ‘on the mend’

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Ryland Group’s chief executive told analysts this morning that he sees the housing market as “on the mend.”

The Calabasas home builder posted a narrower loss Wednesday as the company sold fewer homes amid the construction slump. The loss also came as the government released data showing that new orders for U.S. homes fell unexpectedly last month, raising concerns that consumers will slow their home purchasing as a federal tax credit for first-time buyers approaches its expiration at the end of November.

Nevertheless, CEO Larry T. Nicholson told analysts during a conference call that the housing market appeared to be stabilizing and that was a good sign.

“Well, I think when we say on the mend, we don’t ... mean great leaps forward,” Nicholson said. “I mean we just see inventories continue to decrease. We see price stabilization. We see a lot of things we haven’t seen for a period of time. So I don’t want to sound like we’re overly optimistic. We just see some of the things that have been eroding for a long time have ceased to erode.”

-- Alejandro Lazo