Daniel Fulton
Analyst · Gail Glazerman from UBS
Sure. Let's talk about individual markets within WRECO. Strongest markets within WRECO have been Washington D.C. and Houston, and it's no secret why that is. It's because they have relatively strong employment. Washington D.C. went into the downturn earlier. It's come out ahead of some of the other markets. There's not a significant overbuild of inventory. Volumes are not what they used to be, but prices are recovering, and we're actually seeing some incremental improvement in price. Houston is an energy economy, and so they've come through this market in relatively good shape. We're seeing improved activity on our Trendmaker operation, both from our routine activity with our Trendmaker Homes, plus we have some product enhancements and extensions that have helped us to increase market share and increase volume. Phoenix is a market that's actually showing some growth now. And it -- once again, it's an employment story. Relatively strong employment, our activity is up in Phoenix, and we're starting to see some improvements in margins in that market. In Southern California, we've enjoyed, during the downturn, relatively steady demand in San Diego, and we've had high margins in San Diego because of our historic land position. That continues to be the case. Market's a little bit softer than it was 6 months in -- 6 months ago in San Diego, but that's more of a relative comment. We're seeing some improvement in the Pacific Northwest, which had been soft for a period of time, and that's, once again, related to job growth. So relatively more improved job picture in the Pacific Northwest related to the Boeing airplane company and their ramp up in production plus other new employment. In Las Vegas, we're still struggling. It's a tough market, but the inventory is being worked down, and we are starting to see some improvement in that market. And then the last submarket is the L.A. and the Inland Empire. I think we're doing better than others in the Inland Empire, and we're expecting that market to pick up a bit. So it is a slower recovery than what we had anticipated, Gail, but we're seeing some positive movements. And as we talked and I mentioned in my comments, we had -- 4 of our 5 homebuilders had greater sales in the quarter than they did a year ago, and one year ago, we had the housing tax credit. So that's good news. The market where we did not see improvement was Southern California and Las Vegas. And so that's the one that is our big engine, and we need to see some improvement in order to see a real significant pickup in the WRECO activity. But we've been pleased that WRECO were profitable. Our results, generally, are better than those of our peers, and as Patty mentioned, we're expecting a bit of improvement in the third quarter.