Earnings Labs

Lennar Corporation (LEN)

Q2 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Jun 20, 2017

$92.28

-1.04%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-1.15%

1 Week

-3.30%

1 Month

-1.00%

vs S&P

-2.59%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Lennar's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I will turn the call over to David Collins for the readings of the forward-looking statements.

David Collins

Management

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Today's conference call may include forward-looking statements including statements regarding Lennar's business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, strategies and prospects. Forward-looking statements represent only Lennar's estimates on the date of this conference call and are not intended to give any assurance as to actual future results. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could affect future results and may cause Lennar's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in this morning's press release and our SEC filings, including those under the caption risk factors contained in Lennar's annual report on form 10-K most recently filed with the SEC. Please note that Lennar assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Operator

Operator

I'd like to introduce your host, Mr. Stuart Miller, CEO. Sir, you may begin.

Stuart Miller

Management

Great, thank you, David. This morning, I'm with Rick Beckwitt, our President; Bruce Gross, our Chief Financial Officer; Dianne Bessette, our Vice President and Treasurer; and of course, David Collins, who you just heard from. And we also have Jeff Krasnoff, CEO of Rialto here and Eric Feder, from the Rialto Group; John Jaffe, our Chief Operating Officer; is also with us by phone from California and will participate in the Q&A portion. As always, I am going to start with a brief overview, Bruce will deliver further detail, and we’d like to ask that during the Q&A portion that you limit your questions to one question and one follow-up, so that we can accommodate as many participants as possible in the hour allotted. So let me go ahead and begin by saying that we are very pleased to announce a very strong earnings for the second quarter, with strong and balance results being reported by each of our operating segments. While in our first quarter, we noted that the somewhat sluggish overhang from the end of 2016 had negatively impacted margins and therefore our operating results. We felt that the market was improving, as sales picked up throughout the first quarter. We anticipated that the spring selling season would be solid and that we would in fact see improved results as the year progress. These are exactly the conditions that drove our results for the second quarter. We have continued to see strength in the housing market through the second quarter and have seen new orders, home deliveries and margins exceed our initial expectations. Generally speaking, in spite of the often noisy political environment, there continues to be a general sense of optimism in the market, there continues to be a perception that jobs are being created across the…

Bruce Gross

Management

Thanks, Stuart and good morning. Our net earnings for the second quarter were $213.6 million or $0.91 per diluted share and this compares to second quarter 2016 net earnings or $218.5 million or $0.95 per diluted share, which included a favorable $0.02 per diluted share impact due to a lower 32.2% tax rate as a result of energy credits available in the prior year. Revenues from home sales increased 18% in the second quarter, driven by a 15% increase in wholly-owned deliveries and a 3% increase in average selling price to $374,000. As Stuart highlighted, our Homebuilding team used our new technologies and a strong sales season to focus on selling deliverable inventories. This resulted in a significant increase in our expected backlog conversion ratio to 86% for the quarter. Additionally our completed unsold home inventory dropped by 224 homes or 17% sequentially from the first quarter. This focus on deliverable inventory resulted in an acceleration of home deliveries that were previously expected in our third quarter. WCI contributed 388 deliveries to the quarter and that was about 70 more than were expected. Our gross margin on home sales in the second quarter was 21.5%. We are on track with our previously stated goal of 22% to 22.5% gross margins for the full year. The prior year’s gross margin was 23.1% and the decline year-over-year was due primarily to increased land and construction costs. Our gross margin percentage was impacted 20 basis points due to write up of WCI backlog inventory that closed during the quarter. Sales incentives year-over-year were consistent 5.7%, but improved sequentially by 20 basis points from our first quarter. Gross margin percentages were once again highest in our homebuilding east segment. Direct construction costs were up 5% year-over-year to approximately $55 per square foot, driven by…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ivy Zelman. Your line is now open.

Ivy Zelman

Analyst

Thank you, good morning guys, congratulations another solid quarter. Stuart you mentioned in your opening comments that roughly 40% of the business was really geared at the entry level segment and just talking about what’s happening from a pricing perspective, there has been an acceleration in pricing really throughout the year from January to through the spring selling season give the strength. Is there a level of price appreciation that can concern you as affordability is still attractive. I mean how much run rate do you think you have, you mentioned your technology on pricing. Maybe you can give us some flavor around an apples-to-apples comparison what you are seeing in the start of market. As I hear lot of questions about concerns about the rapid rising appreciation and concerns that it may look like ‘13 when the market got to agree just [ph] and pricing was getting a little ahead of its ski. So if you can comment there and then I have a follow-up. Thanks again.

Stuart Miller

Management

Sure, look I think that -- I think it’s clear pricing has been moving up and even the line between first time and move up buyer is starting to get a little blurry and has been moving up over the past couple of years. I think that -- I am going to turn over to Rick and Jon to give some color from the field. I think generally speaking we are seeing that people though the pricing is moving up people are finding that the affordability from employment wage growth and general economic factors is increasing as well and enabling people to come to the market. Rick?

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

Yes, hi Ivy, so if you look at the quarter, our sales prices were up about 5% on overall aggregate basis and granted some of that impacted by mix. But as you look at the entry level product that we’re dealing in our major markets, we’re able to offset the efficiencies production associated with the price increases in those communities. So we are having a pretty well balanced program right now and really on track with the underwriting that we’ve had.

Stuart Miller

Management

John, you want to weigh in on that.

Jon Jaffe

Analyst

Yes I would just echo that the consumer sentiment is really a driving factor right now and we’re not seeing spikes in appreciation that are causing concerns and we’re really not seeing that at the mortgage table. So, I think it’s typical housing follows jobs and wages and that’s really a tailwind that we have right now.

Ivy Zelman

Analyst

Great. And my follow-up Stuart, the question for Stuart as it relates to sort of capacity knowing that the U.S. housing market is still significant deficit what's needed shelter for single family and retail is extremely tight and very constraint with days on market falling below 30 days according to NAR. One question comes up a lot in meetings as you'll hear from clients is, okay, now all the builders you're the prettiest growth advance if you're building within the FHA loan mermaid and there is not enough supply so everybody is going there. From your perspective, is there a room and depth for now the industry all rushing to go to the BE and even see rings of the market and give us some comfort that there is not going to get a crowding situation or saturation.

Stuart Miller

Management

I think there are some governors out there IV and we've mentioned this in past conference calls. I think there is the limitation on land availability, land pricing that yields to affordable housing. I think there are labor shortages generally. I think that while demand is continuing to grow, I think there are some limiters on how quickly the production can keep up and can expand to meet that demand. The question is to whether there is going to be a flood to B and C locations, there are certainly more demand for those locations as the market expands. As we've highlighted before, it's our strategies to stay inside those outskirts. And so we think that our strategy is really well crafted for where the market is going and we certainly don't want to get way out on the outer trenches. Rick you want to add to that?

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

Yes, and it's all about the overall land strategy. We try to stay ahead of where the market is going. I’d like the think that we're one or two steps ahead of where the industry is. And as a result, we've tied up as we've talked about in the past. A lot of contiguous land through option contracts that put us in a good position as the market evolves.

Ivy Zelman

Analyst

Okay, great. Good luck guys. Thank you very much for taking my questions.

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

Sure.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Robert Wetenhall from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Robert Wetenhall

Analyst

Hey, good morning. Tremendous quarter. Wanted to ask Stuart and Rick and Jon, how much operating leverage is left in the model? You called out dynamic pricing, you're obviously having great success leveraging the SG&A side of the business with some of the new social marketing initiatives you're undertaking. What's left, because you guys made great strides in the short amount of time. It seems like all levers are working in the business. Can you get a better net margin in say the next 18 months or two years due to the fact that you got favorable operating leverage, the pricing environment seems benign, if not outright positive. And you're doing a great job of leveraging the cost structure. What's left to extract from the business in terms of net margin in the current environment?

Stuart Miller

Management

So Bob, I would turn the sentiment around and say that we feel that we're at the very beginning stages. We are articulating our successes relative to digital marketing and now dynamic pricing because we can point to some tangible effects that people can latch on to. But this is a big strategic initiative within the company. We feel that we're at the very early stages, very early innings of what I said in my comments building a better mousetrap. We think that there is a lot more leverage. I think it arrives from a lot of smaller initiatives adding up overtime. And as they become more provable, we'll start to put them on the table. I don't want to start getting out over my skies or creating false optimism it has been done before. But as we prove these up, we're talking about them a little bit more. I think that many know, many people know that this is a very big strategic focus for the company. And we think that we can produce a lot of operating leverage and bring our operating margins up. I don't want to quantify it, but we don't think it's tens of basis points we think it's much bigger than that and it will be overtime.

Robert Wetenhall

Analyst

That's good to know, thank you. And for a follow-up question, you guys have the successful IPO of FivePoint earlier this year, and it seems like some of the ancillary businesses are maturing nicely and I wanted to ask you Stuart, what's your vision of the business in say the end of 2018 or 2019, you've called out a reversion to pure play as a homebuilder back to day six? And it seems like the other ancillary businesses are maturing nicely. How do we think about the trajectory of how this plays out in say the next 18 to 24 months, what are your expectations? Thanks and good luck.

Stuart Miller

Management

Thank you. So, we’ve highlighted in past conference calls that we’re very focused on reverting to pure play to the pure play homebuilding model. Of course we’ve talked about the IPO of FivePoint, we think that brings growth transparency and visibility. But we’re working every day on some of the other components of our business. You've heard us talk a lot about LMC or multifamily apartment rental program, that program as we move through our merchant build assets and migrate towards our build-to-core strategy this sets up an opportunity for us to maintain this strategy within the company if it strategically make sense as a core asset or to do some kind of alternative transaction and that can very well happen over the next couple of years. On the Rialto side, you’ve seen the buildup of our investment management business, you seen the buildup and execution around Rialto Mortgage Finance and you are seeing a very focused strategy on liquidating our core holdings our assets that where we invested Rialto capital. So that we're going to reduce that business to just those two core business lines of RMF and investment management. And as we do that we come to the end of 2017 the next few quarters, we're really going to have something that will be able to be either combined IPO or spun out and we look forward to doing that over the next couple of years as well. So, we think as we look forward expect to see a refined pure play homebuilder over the next couple of years.

Robert Wetenhall

Analyst

Got it. Thanks and good luck.

Stuart Miller

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mike Dahl from Barclays. Your line is open.

Anthony Trainor

Analyst

Hi, this is Anthony Trainor filling in for Mike. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on a strong quarter. So, just wanted to talk a little bit about this gross margin ramp in the second half. Is there any way you can provide kind of the puts and takes around what’s driving the step up from 2Q to 3Q and then kind of how you guys get from 3Q or 4Q in order to maintain this for you guys any type of -- anything you can help us in terms of the bridge there would be great.

Bruce Gross

Management

Probably the biggest impact on margin is the amount of field expenses that are absorbed given the increased volume closings. That combined with the fact that generally we enter the year with a little bit lower sales pace and we’re able to push pricing throughout the year. It's a very typical seasonal pattern.

Anthony Trainor

Analyst

Great. And then I guess there was further follow-up, you mentioned that the East has the highest gross margin percentage, do you have what the Central gross margin percentage is relative to the full company. Because given that backlog value in the Central region is not down year-on-year. That should be a smaller portion of revenues in the second half.

Stuart Miller

Management

We haven’t broken that out by region, but that’s something on a follow-up I could certainly talk though with you.

Anthony Trainor

Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Buck Horne from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Buck Horne

Analyst

Hey, thank you, good morning. I wanted to ask a strategic question of sorts pretty well known a competitor has made a pretty intriguing strong different external land development platform. And I’m kind of curious how you see the market over the next couple of years for land development and finished lots evolving. And would it make some senses for Lennar to develop its own external platform or partnership for finished lots notwithstanding the relationship with FivePoint in California.

Stuart Miller

Management

So, I think you are talking about the four star news that's out there as those of you that don't know Starwood Capital has that as a merger agreement to acquire that company. Another builder has recently announced that they have an interest in trying to put something together that buys the majority of the company and run it as a land bank type of machine that would feed that company. It’s an interesting set of cards, we really don’t want to comment on the viability of that platform or the stub piece that would trade in the market, but as we look at we have had absolutely no problem sourcing land. We do a lot of partnerships and have a tremendous depth of connectivity with the land sellers and land developers out there. And we think that we’re going to continue down our path and continue to grow the company.

Buck Horne

Analyst

That’s perfect. Now that’s exactly what I was trying to ask about, so I appreciate you’re reading through those lines. And last, I’d like to just go back to WCI, just for a second. How do you see the integration, I guess, progressing from here in terms of growth plans or acceleration of community activity and maybe if you can add some color about what you’d like to do with the WCI tower pads going forward as well?

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

Well on the integration front, as Stuart said, we’re exactly where we planned again if not a little bit ahead of schedule, the only integration that’s left is really some backend IT stuff the fine tuning on integrating the accounting and control assumptions. Although from an operating standpoint we are one company right now, we’re continuing with the WCI brand because we think that there has been increased ASP growth on those communities. From a targeted standpoint with regard to the pads, we have one of the towers under construction right now, that’s doing really well, once we entered the sales season. And our plan is to -- if the market is there to continue to build and develop out that business. WCI is a power house in those markets and with our expertise especially on our multifamily side since we do a lot of high rise in the multifamily business. Now we are able to arbitrage costs that will make that business even stronger.

Stuart Miller

Management

Let me just add to that and say WCI really is a textbook merger and combination integration story, it happened very quickly, very efficiently. We are as Rick says up, we are one company at this point. The positive side of that is that we have clean and clear operating strategies going forward. And the two pronged programs that lead to the best operating results and that is the ability to apply our construction cost preferred customer approach to dealing with subcontractors is really going to benefit the WCI business going forward. And the SG&A leverage that we have been improving on the Lennar platform, we think better than others is going to help leverage the additional volume that we see from WCI in the future, getting the integration behind us quickly and efficiently really enables us to take advantage of those two strategic advantages. And we think we’re going to see that going forward.

Buck Horne

Analyst

That’s great, thank you very much for the comments.

Stuart Miller

Management

You bet.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephen East from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Stephen East

Analyst

Thank you and good morning everybody. Bruce you talked about expected strong cash flow this year, could you give us an idea of what type of magnitude you’re talking about this year and next year and as you all rank quarter your options for that kind of usage of that cash?

Bruce Gross

Management

So let me start, we haven’t given next year’s numbers out yet, although we expect next year to be strong as well. But for this year we talked about approximately $0.5 billion of operating cash flow and one of the things we said at the beginning of the year as we were comfortable paying all cash for WCI and that was a $643 million acquisition. So that was one of the primary uses of the operating cash flow for this year. We expect the leverage by the end of the year to be similar to the prior year so that will put us in really good shape as we enter '18 and we'll give that updated guidance in our fourth quarter.

Stephen East

Analyst

Okay, fair enough.

Stuart Miller

Management

So [indiscernible] Steve, we are very focused on cash flow generation. And focused on really improving the balance sheet as we go forward.

Stephen East

Analyst

Okay. And along those lines Stuart, I guess I'll ask a different version of Buck's question. When you look at FivePoint do you see a vehicle that in this cycle could expand away from California and into other parts of the country and maybe act as a partner with you to maybe continue or accelerate your soft pivot somewhat?

Stuart Miller

Management

That's -- first of all FivePoint today is a strong independent company with a strong Chief Executive Officer, Emile Haddad. And I certainly don't want to take away from his articulation of strategy. But having been on the road show with him now for a few weeks I do feel that I can comfortably say that FivePoint strategy is to remain focused as a California pure play master plan community focused developer. It has a strong complement of assets that it is focused on today. And it's not going to be distracted by a land strategy for Lennar or any other builder across the country. It's going to stick to its core competence. We endorse that strategy for FivePoint, we think that's how they're going to drive bottom-line and execute their strategy in the public markets as they've articulated it. So they are -- for those who might think about the Four Star strategy and applying that to a FivePoint that’s just simply not our thinking about strategy nor is it the articulated strategy of FivePoint.

Stephen East

Analyst

Fair enough, that's extremely helpful. And if I could sneak one other in, you all have talked in the past reducing floor plans, your labor hours with technology becoming more of a manufacturing process et cetera. Do you see with the labor issues continuing and probably continuing for good chunk of this cycle. Do you see a fundamental change in the way you build i.e., more penalization modular whatever the case maybe.

Stuart Miller

Management

Jon leads that, a lot of that effort and he has done extraordinary work there. Jon, why don't you take that?

Jon Jaffe

Analyst

Sure. Really, we explored those options every day, we have a supply chain team that's very focused from the beginning of the process through the end. There really hasn't been a realization in the area of modular or prefabing, but yes, we continue to explore that. The opportunities that we're seeing are really eliminating the waste that’s in the supply chain by forming very close relationships with the suppliers and manufacturers and recalibrating that to drive some efficiencies. And that's what we see over the near to medium term and perhaps longer term there will be some technologies that enable some change. But remember, our factories out in the field home site by home site. So it doesn't lend itself the same way that some other manufacturing processes do to the advance of technologies.

Stuart Miller

Management

Within our environment, we've really engineered and Jon has sphere headed using our everything included marketing strategy as a mechanism for creating Lennar as a builder of choice among subcontractors. And we've built a lot of partnership to be able to strategize in how we can breed efficiencies into our building process and our cost structure. And I think we've made some meaningful inroads along those lines.

Stephen East

Analyst

Okay, thanks a lot. I appreciate that Stuart.

Stuart Miller

Management

You bet.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jack Micenko from SIG. Your line is open.

Jack Micenko

Analyst

Hi, thanks for taking the question. With the FivePoint ownership, obviously you brought into some more on the deal. It might be a technical question, but I think it has ramifications to the bigger Lennar story that’s kind is some of the part story. You didn't step up the value of FivePoint on your balance sheet. I know it's a long-term position, how do we think about how you realize that value now it's a public traded entity longer term the value that position?

Stuart Miller

Management

Well, look, number one I think that transparency associated with FivePoint being a public company. That really helps our shareholder base understand its horsepower. Now that story is going to evolve over the next quarters and years as residential lands are sold, as infrastructure improvements add to value, as the cycle of appreciation embedded in master plan communities really reveals itself through quarterly conference calls and accomplishments. Our shareholders are going to be able to see FivePoint’s improvement through the transparency and articulation through the public markets. I think that FivePoint’s strategy as it’s been articulated is very focused. There is excellent management team in place. We are happy to number one, be invested in the assets that are -- that make up FivePoint, invested in the management team that makes up FivePoint and we think that giving California’s land constraint, we’re going to have -- we’re going to see tremendous appreciation overtime.

Jon Jaffe

Analyst

And let me just add the technical part of that question, the difference between the basis on our books and FivePoint books is recognized when there is a third-party sale from FivePoint that difference will be recognized by Lennar.

Jack Micenko

Analyst

Okay, thank you that's helpful. And then, looking at the backlog the ASP is up about 6% year-over-year, looks like some acceleration there, is that the pricing power you are speaking off or is that WCI mix or maybe a little bit of both?

Stuart Miller

Management

It’s a little bit of both. We are seeing some mix, but we are seeing some price appreciation, the 3% this quarter gave us the confidence as we looked at our backlog the increased average sales price for the rest of the year. So, it’s a little of both.

Jack Micenko

Analyst

Alright, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Michael Rehaut from JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Michael Rehaut

Analyst

Thanks, good morning everyone.

Stuart Miller

Management

Good morning.

Michael Rehaut

Analyst

First question, just about sales pace throughout the quarter, if you kind of take the average community count, I know this is kind of in an exact science, but just using methodology consistently, we’ve sales pace up roughly 3% year-over-year that compares to up 5% last quarter. Just curious if you see anything different in terms of how at least on a year-over-year bases, was that kind of modest improvement, kind of consistent throughout the quarter again a percent here there it is, is not too material. But was there any change as you saw it versus the versus the first quarter, as we kind of focus on the pace year-over-year is kind of getting a better picture of year-over-year demand and change in demand?

Stuart Miller

Management

Jon, want to give prospective there?

Jon Jaffe

Analyst

Yes I think you saw the traditional spring selling season that strength as you look at year-over-year and the slight uptick in comparison just show that this year was a little bit stronger reflective as our earlier comments seeing in consumer confidence, wage and job growth all reflecting an increased traffic at our welcome home centers, increased convergent rate of that traffic. So all building to a slightly stronger sales pace.

Michael Rehaut

Analyst

And nothing different that you saw during the quarter?

Jon Jaffe

Analyst

Pretty consistence, the quarter strengthened from the first month to the second two months, but pretty consistent over the quarter.

Michael Rehaut

Analyst

Great. And then just secondly on the ASP, I think you kind to talk about 2Q the improvement being a little bit mix and pricing driven and that's what drove your confidence to increase the guidance for the full year. Just want to clarify that increasing in about $5,000 per home. Is that also kind of in some ways both mix and pricing driven and is it right to assume that you are not necessarily increasing your gross margin guidance because you may perhaps that's being offset to the extent that there is a little bit of pricing there, it’s being offset by continued inflation or how should we think about that?

Stuart Miller

Management

There is always a question around mix versus price appreciation when you are rolling up numbers from across the country and it’s very hard to disentangle. I think that there is some offset with construction cost and labor cost and everything else, it’s really hard to get these margin numbers and everything perfectly refined as we look ahead and it moves around through the quarter. So, it is as you said in your prior question Mike, it’s in exact science and I think we’re all kind of trying to look ahead to what the trend looks like. Generally speaking we’ve seen some initial pricing power, some initial sense of pricing power. But remember that you also have the offset of construction costs and labor costs that are moving in tandem. So we will see how the quarter unfolds, we have given the best guidance that we can at this point.

Michael Rehaut

Analyst

Great, thanks so much.

Stuart Miller

Management

You bet. I think we have time for one more question.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephen Kim from Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Stephen Kim

Analyst

Thanks very much for squeezing me in guys. I wanted to follow-up on that, I think earlier in the call when you were addressing pricing, you were talking about the entry level of the market and I thought that I think it was Rick saying that you were able to offset costs with price there sort of suggesting that margins were stable to maybe slightly positive trending. In this context of a mortgage rate environment that’s kind of surprised us over the last six months in terms of coming down fairly meaningfully. I am assuming that probably wasn’t baked into your guidance as well. Are you a little surprised that you haven’t been able to recognize more pricing power at the entry level particularly?

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

Well Steve, that’s not exactly what I said, what I was trying to say and let me just backup. We have always articulated that the entry level is a lower margin business given that it’s that type of business. We are continuing to see pricing power in that first time segment, what I was really trying to get to is given the fact that it’s an easier simpler product to build with less Foo Foo [ph] in it if you will, it helps us from a margin standpoint.

Stuart Miller

Management

We don’t use Foo Foo, well, less specialness on the outside let’s say.

Stephen Kim

Analyst

Right.

Stuart Miller

Management

Just easier to build, faster from the production standpoint.

Stephen Kim

Analyst

Okay.

Stuart Miller

Management

Next question, Steve.

Stephen Kim

Analyst

Okay, got it. But within that could you address the interplay of mortgage rates and the obvious impact on affordability and how that affects your pricing dynamic then, in that segment of the market?

Rick Beckwitt

Analyst

So I think you are starting to see the buyers in that segment come to the table a little bit better organized, where they have their financing documents enrolled, they have got a little bit higher qualified buyer universe out there. And that’s helping offset some of the pricing increase that we’re able to do, because they have got -- they are just better organized and positioned.

Stuart Miller

Management

Let me add to that and say that, I think, Jon highlighted earlier that a lot of what’s driving people to the market is a sense of confidence, it’s animal spirits, it’s the notion that all of this is in exact science, interest rates and affordability and wages and pricing all play a part and what people can afford and how the math actually works out. But the confidence that people bring with them to the table about whether their job is table and whether there’s going to be a wage increase or there is opportunity for them to move and be mobile to the next job opportunity. Whether they have been to able accumulate a down payment or in excess of a down payment, or whether their family members that are able to help support with the gift or something else, all of these are moving parts that define this in exact science that we are all trying to kind of define going forward. So it’s kind of hard to wrap all of our heads around where the market is going, but the general trajectory is positive and even at the first time buyer level as the millennials start to unwind their doubling up and come to the market realizing that rental rates have gone up and there is a real reason to go ahead and purchase. That first time buyer segment is showing some optimism and some ability to be flexible in and around the affordability levels and as prices move up. I don't know if that's helpful or not Steve, but…

Stephen Kim

Analyst

Yes that was just what I was getting at. So that's very helpful. The second question I had related to technology and I know you've done a lot of work there and it's come up a few times on this call and it's an area of great interest for us. I think that you had mentioned -- so you called out two areas in particular, I think digital marketing and dynamic pricing. And you said there were some others, but within the digital marketing, I think you've pointed that marketing spend was down year-over-year for 10 straight quarters and in dynamic pricing that you reduced your standing inventory 17% without a negative margin impact. And I guess I was curious as to when you take those two, digital marketing and dynamic pricing, are those the metrics that you're primarily monitoring that you think are the most important for assessing the effectiveness or your programs there? Or is there -- are there other very important metrics that we should be thinking about as it relates to those two. And when you mentioned other initiatives outside of those two, are there any general areas that hold the most promise that you think that we could be focused on?

Stuart Miller

Management

Well, first of all let me say I'm so happy to hear that people are listening to my opening remarks and you did reside back to the -- as you have clearly listened. Look, these initiatives are really core to what we are working on day-to-day inside the company. And your questions are good one, the answer is that those metrics are the starting metrics for those two initiatives, but they are not the only metrics for those two initiatives. There are other embedded metrics that we're working at. So relative to digital marketing, the very first thing was proving that we could improve our traffic particularly the quality of traffic. Put aside the quantity for a minute, but the quality of traffic while reducing the spend. So it was really can we cut the spends by 50 basis points while we improve the quality of the traffic and continue to grow our business. And that was the beginning metric, but as we become more proficient at digital marketing and as we can expand the flow of qualified traffic I highlighted 100,000 customers, qualified customers coming to the doors driven by social media and internet marketing. As we can expand the number coming through the doors, we are probably going to be able to see greater pricing power and other efficiencies as well. And I'm not going to go through and start articulating those matrices, but we think there is more firepower in the digital marketing strategy and we are very focused on that on a regular basis. Likewise with the dynamic pricing tool, what you're seeing in a reduction in standing inventory is a starter, but the ability to sell homes that are not standing inventory at the end of quarters helps elevate the need to use discounting mechanisms or incentives to move that inventory. And so as we move forwards with those digital tools or technology tools, we think that there is more firepower in them. But we have a whole host of initiatives of that we're working on, that we don't articulate. Because we're simply not getting out over our skies, but we are telling you that we're working on these things every day and we are committed and think we will build a better mousetrap.

Stephen Kim

Analyst

That's great. Thanks very much for that, appreciated. Good luck.

Stuart Miller

Management

Okay, you bet. Thanks Steve. And I do want to say thank you everybody for joining us. We look forward to keeping you updated as we move through the rest of 2017. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

That concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.