See which workplaces made this year's list.

2026_GPTW_best-places-by-industry-Construction-PulteGroup,_Inc.

Employees say:"We have an amazing culture. Management inspires, leads by example, and leads with humility. Teams support one another, hold each other accountable, and have each other's backs. Individuals are committed to working hard, growing, and doing the right thing. We are recognized for our contributions and successes. My job is absolutely one of the best parts of my life."

Best Large Workplaces in Construction

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100 Best Places to Work 2026_PulteGroup, Inc.

Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For

The companies on this annual list make a conscious effort to be supportive, inclusive workplaces.

2025 Best Large Workplaces for Women_PulteGroup, Inc._US1__68a71dfc383bc91cadd06a7f_3

Employees say:"Management consistently demonstrates adaptability to departmental needs and communicates company metrics and initiatives with clarity and transparency. Emotional wellbeing is a core part of our culture, and we're provided with ample opportunities to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Our team is incredibly supportive, always striving to do the right thing and ensuring our division's clients are satisfied. The collective effort and dedication truly make this a great place to work."

100 Best Large Workplaces for Women

2025_GPTW_Construction_Large_PulteGroup, Inc._US1__685d50c0023fa8a026342320_1

Employees say:"I believe Pulte has established a culture that recognizes people as its most valuable asset. The company provides excellent wellness coverage and programs, competitive pay, paid holidays, company-wide celebratory events, and various other initiatives that prioritize its employees."

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GPTW_100BestCompaniesToWorkFor_2025-PulteGroup, Inc._US1__20241210214006_4

Employees say: "This company provides opportunities for employees to grow and develop to be the best employee that they can be. PulteGroup has built a great work culture and team that empowers its employees. Some examples are teambuilding events, great communication, and holiday events."

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GPTW_Women_Large_2024-PulteGroup, Inc._US1__20240830224000_3

Employees say:"The work like balance is unlike anything I have experienced before. You have enough PTO to not worry about using it all quickly. You do not feel like you have to miss moments in your kids/family life due to work."

GPTW-Construction-Large-2024-PulteGroup

Employees say:"I have worked in the new home sales business for 17 years and with 4 other home builders. Pulte has been beyond the best company to work for. Management truly wants you to succeed and is supportive. Everyone is welcoming and I feel as though I am really part of a team. They offer a leadership development program that I was invited to participate in. Upper management and the division president are approachable and easy to talk to, they ask for feedback and value my opinions. I genuinely ENJOY spending my free time with my co-workers and have cultivated many friendships."

Fortune partners with global people analytics firm Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing employees from companies across the U.S.

GPTW Millennials 2024-Large-PulteGroup, Inc.

Employees say:"The people at Pulte are genuinely nice and compassionate. I've never felt so supported in my career as much as I do here. I feel at ease because I am not worried how I will be treated. I don't take for granted the excellence in behavior here."

100 Best Large Workplaces for Millennials

Industries included in the sector are construction and engineering services and homebuilders.

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100 Best Companies 2024-PulteGroup, Inc.

After weathering a difficult year in a nearly frozen housing market, PulteGroup fell seven places from its 2023 ranking. Yet it remains the third largest homebuilder in the U.S., with operations in more than 45 U.S. markets. PulteGroup aims to create affordable housing opportunities; provides mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans through its Built to Honor program; organizes food drives with local pantries; and launches fundraising initiatives for organizations employees care about.&nbsp; &nbsp;The PulteGroup Foundation launched Dollars for Doers in 2022: For every hour an employee volunteers, the foundation contributes the equivalent of up to $25 per hour, for up to 40 hours annually per employee.&nbsp; &nbsp;To bolster the success of its homebuilding operations team, which constitutes 75% of its workforce, PulteGroup offers mentorship and formal training programs, such as its Certified Field Trainer initiative to support trainees for up to six months.

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100 BEST COMPANIES 2023-PulteGroup

One of the largest homebuilders in the U.S. aims to continually improve the employee experience. As a result, nine out of 10 employees want to work at PulteGroup for “a long time.” 
<ul> 
 	<li>The diversity board’s outreach committee has enhanced PulteGroup’s recruitment, hiring, and onboarding efforts with a focus on identifying a large pool of diverse job candidates and building recruitment relationships with HBCUs.</li> 
 	<li>New hires are assigned an onboarding experience partner, responsible for ensuring new team members feel connected to the company.</li> 
 	<li>PulteGroup’s affordable housing committee is piloting a new program, Hope to Home, that will subsidize a percentage of the homes the company builds, offering them to first-time buyers in underserved groups.</li> 
 	<li>The company has a one-stop learning management system that provides employees with training, workshops, and developmental tools.</li> 
 	<li>PulteGroup’s new health and wellness program goes beyond physical and emotional health coverage to include financial and social wellness.</li> 
</ul>

GPTW Women 2023-PulteGroup, Inc.

Employees say: 
 
"Everyone on the team cares about doing a great job, taking care of each other, and doing what is right for our customers. There’s a high level of work ethic and pride from everyone."

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing nearly half a million U.S. employees.

GPTW Millennial Large 2023-PulteGroup

Employees say: 
 
"Every single employee seems genuinely happy to work at PulteGroup, Inc. I think I can speak for most, if not all, of us when I say we feel like this company and our superiors care about our happiness. I feel seen as something more than just an employee. My managers are happy in their roles and are great leaders. The opportunity to volunteer and have a day off to do so is so special. This company cares for our community, and I feel a massive sense of pride over it."

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When it comes to supporting employees, flexibility, diversity, and a few extra paid days off go a long way.

100 Best 2022 PulteGroup,-Inc._1274415-5

America’s third-largest homebuilder has a laser focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. PulteGroup created internal committees to work on recruiting and training a diverse talent pool of employees and to sponsor cultural awareness programming with live, interactive webinars that spotlight the achievements of a diverse range of individuals. Externally, in keeping with the company’s values, PulteGroup is working to create homeowning opportunities for lower-income families and minorities through affordable housing and down payment assistance initiatives. Part of the company’s emphasis on inclusion includes a flexible workweek. Once fully implemented, employees will work in the office two days per week and remotely for the other three.

Great Places to Work in Construction Large-2022-PulteGroup, Inc._1274415-5

Employees say: 
 
“This team is like a big family, and it is a lot of fun to be able to work with all of them. We have a strong bond and its great to feel like my work makes a difference. This is the only place I have worked that truly shows how much they appreciate our hard work and what we do.”

GPTW Women 2022-PulteGroup, Inc

Employees say: 
 
“Pulte offers a lot of development and growth opportunities that help you grow and advance in your career. There is a large focus on recognition and connection, even in a hybrid environment. I have been impressed with our increased efforts on diversity and inclusion the past couple of years and the launch of our BRGs and women in leadership series.”

To determine millennials' workplace preferences, Fortune's research partner Great Place to Work analyzed feedback representing more than 6.1 million U.S. employees.

GPTW 2022 Millennials List Large-Pulte Group

Employees say: 
 
“I have said this before and I’ll say it again, I feel blessed to be with a company who is not always thinking of the bottom line. Keeping people safe when weather is bad, during a pandemic making sure we had the essentials, and listening to its employees when they chime in with ideas. I have several close friends working for other builders and they cannot say the same. I’m a proud Pulte employee!”

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100 Best Companies 2021-76-PulteGroup,-Inc.

The homebuilder was hit hard by the pandemic, which forced it to make painful staff reductions in the form of furloughs and layoffs. In response, PulteGroup CEO Ryan Marshall, his direct reports, and the entire board of directors took pay cuts, raising $400,000 for a relief fund aiding those who lost their jobs. In the end, the company was able to bring back 100% of furloughed employees within 60 days, and actively set about rehiring those who were laid off. Marshall has also made a commitment to improving PulteGroup’s diversity practices, forming an internal diversity and inclusion board meant to hold the organization accountable to its goals.

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Best-Workplaces-Women-2021-Large-PulteGroup,-Inc

Employees say: 
 
“The company is always making an effort to recognize its employees and show their appreciation. The CEO knows front-line employees by name and makes an effort to build relationships with employees at all levels of the organization.”

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-284-PulteGroup

Started by 18-year-old homebuilder Bill Pulte in 1950, PulteGroup is now the third-largest home construction company in the U.S. based on number of homes closed. Its brands include Del Webb and Centex.

We surveyed tens of thousands of employees to create this list of millennials’ favorite workplaces.

Best Large Workplaces Millennials 2021-PulteGroup,-Inc

Employees say: 
 
“My managers trust me to get the job done well, and as result, I have incredible opportunity and flexibility. I trust my team, and they too enjoy complete flexibility and opportunity. Together - we always WIN! This is truly a Great Place to Work!”

For an astounding 13th straight year, Apple claims the top spot in Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation, based on a survey of almost 3,800 executives, directors, and analysts.

Best Workplaces Women 2020-PulteGroup

Employees say: 
 
“People are genuinely interested in my career advancement. I've been mentored and challenged, which directly resulted in several promotions. This is truly a team where people care for each other and look for ways to build them up to promote.”

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020_309_PulteGroup

The Atlanta-based homebuilder, whose brands include Del Webb and Centex, is considered the third-largest home construction company in the U.S. based on the number of homes closed. It operates in more than 40 markets.

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Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

Fortune Global 500

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Subsidized childcare

Compressed work weeks

Option to work remotely

Minimum requirement in-office attendance (days per week)

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Best Workplaces In Construction

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PulteGroup is one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., having constructed over 800,000 homes since 1950. The company operates in more than 45 markets across 24 states through its portfolio of brands, including Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods.

Q2 2026

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Q4 2025

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Q1 2025

Q4 2024

PulteGroup (PHM): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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PulteGroup

pultegroup

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the PulteGroup Inc. Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again press star one. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Jim Zeumer. You may begin.

Thanks, Rob. Good morning and thank you for joining today's call as we look forward to discussing PulteGroup's third quarter operating and financial results. With me today are Ryan Marshall, President and CEO, Jim Ossowski, Executive Vice President and CFO, and David Carrier, Senior Vice President of Finance. As always, a copy of our earnings release and this morning's presentation have been posted to our corporate website at pultegroup.com. We will also post an audio replay of this call later today. I would highlight that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements about the company's expected future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our comments today. The most significant risk factors that could affect future results are summarized as part of today's earnings release and within the accompanying presentation. These risk factors and other key information are detailed in our SEC filings, including our annual and quarterly reports.

Now let me turn the call over to Ryan. Ryan.

Good morning and thank you for joining this morning's call. I look forward to updating you on PulteGroup's strong Q3 financial results and underlying business strategies that have positioned our operations for ongoing success. Specific to the company's third quarter results, our home building operations successfully closed over 7,500 homes, which helped to drive another quarter of overall strong financial results. As Jim will expand on shortly, I am pleased to highlight that PulteGroup generated third quarter home sale revenues of $4.2 billion, operating margins of 16.8%, and earnings of $2.96 per share. Given our focus on returns, I would also highlight that the company has delivered a return on equity of 21% for the trailing twelve months. These results reflect the strength of our diversified operating model, which continues to serve us well in a U.S. housing market where home buying demand has been challenging.

Geographically, our diversified operating platform that spans across 47 major markets remains a key strength, while our broad reach across buyer groups, first-time, move-up, and active adult provides unique strategic advantages that are helping us to successfully navigate today's demand dynamics. Specifically in today's market, weaker consumer confidence and stretched affordability are limiting opportunities with first-time buyers, while demand has been more resilient within the active adult segment, where we, through our Del Webb brand, are a recognized leader. For those of you that have not had the opportunity to visit the Del Webb community, think Disney cruise ship for those 55 and older. At 500-1,000 homes, Del Webb communities are larger and offer amenity packages that can include everything from tennis, pickleball, fitness, spa to social activities, food, and dining. More than anything, Del Webb communities offer personal connections and a place to belong.

As we highlighted on previous calls, we are capitalizing on the brand recognition and power of the Del Webb name through our new Del Webb Explore communities. Our new Del Webb Explore brand is designed to serve today's Gen X buyers looking for the amazing luxury lifestyle, but without the age restriction. We are in the early stages of planning a get-to-know Del Webb event in 2026, and we will keep you posted on the timing. Getting back to our results, in the third quarter, traffic to our communities was higher than last year, although conversion rates fluctuated from week to week. Based on feedback from our sales associates, consumers remain engaged in the home buying process, but they are proceeding with caution given concerns which I think range from economic weakness and job stability to stretched affordability.

I think that is why buyer response to the decrease in interest rates was more muted than we experienced in other periods of recent rate declines. We have always said that interest rates are a positive, lower interest rates are a positive for housing demand, but rates don't operate in a vacuum. There is a clear offset if rates are coming down because the economy is slowing and people are worried about their jobs. I believe that is the scenario we are experiencing right now. That being said, I would note that our Q3 absorption rate of 2.2 homes per month was consistent with our pre-COVID average, although down from last year's third quarter absorption rate of 2.4. While demand conditions differ by market and buyer segment, we would characterize U.S.

housing demand as good, albeit competitive and with some challenges, but one in which our size and scale allow us to compete effectively. As discussed on prior calls, earlier in the year, we proactively made decisions to better align production levels with sales volumes. In the third quarter, we started 6,557 homes, which effectively equaled our Q3 sales pace. This pace is consistent with our strategy to match starts with sales as we work toward an appropriate level of inventory relative to current market demand. When setting our starts pace, our goal is to have the right level of inventory to meet core demand while avoiding excess finished spec production, thus allowing our sales team to sell from a position of strength.

With our average build cycle now down to just 106 days, we can carry less inventory and still be responsive to any demand acceleration in Q4 or as we enter 2026. Along with adjusting our pace of production, earlier in the year, we moderated our planned land spend for 2025 and remain on track to invest approximately $5 billion in land acquisition and development. At over $5 billion, our land spend would be down 5% from last year, but we remain in a strong position with a healthy land pipeline, a pipeline that can enable us to grow the business when home buying demand increases. Let me finish my comments by recognizing and saying thank you to the entire Pulte team. They have truly done an outstanding job navigating 2025's evolving market conditions while staying focused on delivering outstanding quality and service to our home buyers.

You've done an amazing job, team. Now let me turn the call over to Jim for a detailed review of our third quarter results. Jim?

Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to review PulteGroup's Q3 financial results. In the third quarter, Pulte's net new orders totaled 6,638 homes, which is 6% lower than the third quarter of last year. The year-over-year decline in Q3 net new orders reflects a 10% decrease in absorption pace, partially offset by a 5% increase in our average community count to 1,002 communities for the quarter. As a percentage of starting backlog, our cancellation rate for the third quarter was 12%, which is modestly up from 10% last year. On a sequential basis, the Q3 cancellation rate was up 60 basis points from the second quarter, which tells us that most home buyers, once under contract, remain committed to their home purchase.

As Ryan noted, our third quarter absorption pace was 2.2 homes per month, compared with 2.4 homes per month in Q3 of last year. Buyer demand in the quarter reflected a typical seasonal pattern, although core demand in 2025 has been below what we experienced in 2024. Broken down by buyer group, net new orders among first-time buyers were down 14% from last year, and our move-up business was down 3%. As has been the case throughout 2025, our active adult business remains our strongest buyer group, as net new orders increased 7% over Q3 of last year. In the third quarter, net new orders within our active adult business benefited from both an increase in community count and absorption pace. Active adult sales represented 24% of Q3 net new orders, and as we have shared on previous calls, most of these homes will be delivered in 2026.

Home sale revenues in the third quarter totaled $4.2 billion, which is down 2% from last year's Q3 revenues of $4.3 billion. The decline in home sale revenues reflects a 5% decrease in closing volumes to 7,529 homes, partially offset by a 3% increase in average sales price at $564,000. Closing ASP benefited from the geographic mix of deliveries realized in Q3 of this year. By buyer group, closings in the third quarter were comprised of 39% first-time, 39% move-up, and our active adult business represented 22%. This is generally in line with our mix in the third quarter of last year, when our closings were 40% first-time, 40% move-up, and 20% active adult. Reflective of Q3 orders and closing volume, we ended the third quarter with a backlog of 9,888 homes valued at $6.2 billion.

In the third quarter of last year, our backlog was 12,089 homes with a value of $7.7 billion. We ended Q3 with 15,096 homes in production, of which 7,369 or 49% were spec homes. In absolute numbers, our quarter-end inventory of spec homes was down 1% from the third quarter of last year and down 16% for almost 1,400 houses from the start of this year. Our field teams have done an excellent job managing starts as they work to balance inventory levels with consumer demand. Given current sales trends and specifically the number of built-to-order contracts we are executing, specs are likely to remain closer to 50% of production in the next several quarters, which is higher than our target range of 40%-45%. Since spec homes continue to make up a large percentage of overall sales, we are comfortable with our strategy for managing our spec position.

Based on sales activity and the number of homes in our production pipeline, we expect to close between 7,200 to 7,600 homes in the fourth quarter. Given this guide for expected Q4 closings, the math tells you that if we could exceed our previous guidance, this whole year closings likely end up in the range of 29,000-29,400 homes. We still have homes to sell and close to achieve these numbers as we are focused on converting spec inventory into closing and finishing the year strong. Given our backlog, production pipeline, and recent order trends, we are still guiding to our average sales price of closings to be in the range of $560,000-$570,000 in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025.

Looking at our land pipeline, we continue to expect our community count the fourth quarter to be 3%-5% higher than the comparable prior year period. In line with our previous guidance, we reported a third quarter gross margin of 26.2%, which on a sequential basis is down 80 basis points from Q2. Pulte's third quarter gross margin is inclusive of higher incentives incurred during the period resulting from demand conditions and local competitive dynamics. Incentives in the third quarter were 8.9% of gross sales price, which compares with 7.0% last year and 8.7% in the second quarter of this year. While incentives move slightly higher, teams are doing an excellent job controlling billed costs, which at $79 per square foot are consistent with the prior year and with the second quarter of 2025.

Let me just add a quick update here to our prior comments regarding the impact of tariffs. At this time, we estimate that tariffs will effectively have little to no impact on our closings in Q4 of 2025, but they could increase billed costs by roughly $1,500 per home starting in 2026. We'll provide a more definitive estimate on tariffs when we report our fourth quarter earnings in January. Factoring in current demand conditions, the generally competitive local market dynamics, and our goal of reducing excess finished spec inventory, we now expect fourth quarter gross margins to be in the range of 25.5%-26.0%. For our third quarter, SG&A expense was $401 million or 9.4% of home sale revenue. This is comparable to prior SG&A expense of $407 million or 9.4% of home sale revenues.

In the face of current market dynamics, we remain focused on appropriately controlling our overhead spend and finding opportunities to lower expenses while still delivering the build quality and buying experience for which Pulte is known. Given the success of our efforts, we are maintaining our previous guide for full year 2025 SG&A expense to be in the range of 9.5%-9.7% of home sale revenues. Our financial services operations reported third quarter pre-tax income of $44 million, which is down from $55 million in Q3 of last year. Pre-tax income for the quarter was impacted by lower closing volumes in our home building operations and a lower capture rate in the period. Our mortgage capture rate in the third quarter was 84%, compared with 87% last year. For the third quarter, PulteGroup's reported pre-tax income was $768 million.

In the period, our tax expense was $182 million, or an effective tax rate of 23.7%. Our effective tax rate in Q3 benefited from the purchase of renewable energy tax credits. For the fourth quarter, we expect our tax rate to be approximately 24.5%, assuming no discrete period-specific tax events. We reported third quarter net income of $568 million or $2.96 per share. In the third quarter of last year, the company reported net income of $698 million or $3.35 per share. PulteGroup's third quarter earnings per share was calculated based on 198 million diluted shares outstanding. Our share count is down 5% from the prior year as we continue to execute our stock repurchase program. In this year's third quarter, we repurchased 2.4 million common shares for $300 million.

Through the first nine months of 2025, the company repurchased 8.2 million common shares for a total of $900 million, or an average price of $109.81 per share. At quarter end, we have $1.3 billion remaining under our existing share repurchase authorization. Consistent with our stated capital allocation priorities, we invested $1.3 billion in land acquisition and development in the third quarter, with 54% deployed toward the development of our existing land assets. Year to date, we have invested $3.8 billion in land acquisition and development as we work to maintain a reliable pipeline of near and long-term buildable lots. We ended the third quarter with approximately 240,000 lots under control. On a sequential basis, it's down 9,000 lots from the second quarter as we elected to walk away from certain option deals that were years out and early in the entitlement process.

These actions are consistent with our disciplined land underwriting practices and capital allocation process. Our ability to proactively manage our land pipeline demonstrates the importance of our differentiated approach to controlling critical land assets. As we have highlighted in the past, over 80% of Pulte's land options are with the underlying land seller, the remainder structured as one-off transactions with a select number of land bankers. We remain disciplined in executing our option strategy, and we focus on enhancing project returns and mitigating market risk. Based on operating results through the first three quarters of 2023 and adjustments we have made to this year's production and planned land spend, we still expect cash flow generation for the full year to be approximately $1.4 billion. Let me close with a few comments about our balance sheet.

We ended the third quarter with $1.5 billion of cash and a debt-to-capital ratio of 11.2%. Adjusting for the cash balance, our net debt-to-capital ratio at quarter end was 1.1%. Now, let me turn the call back to Ryan for some final comments.

Thanks, Jim. Before opening the call to questions, I wanted to provide some additional color as to the market conditions we are experiencing. Generally, buyer demand in the third quarter reflected a typical seasonal pattern, although buyer demand at the local market level also reflected new and existing home inventories, which in a number of markets remain elevated. Seasonal demand trends remain on track through the first few weeks of October, with traffic and buyer interest generally comparable to what we experienced in Q3. From a sales standpoint, we are now in the seasonally slowest part of the year, but we remain optimistic that lower rates in combination with a strong economy and higher confidence can ultimately work to energize new and, just as importantly, existing home sales.

For obvious reasons, we focus on the new home market, but demand within the existing home market remains soft, resulting in elevated levels of inventory. To the extent that lower rates can revitalize existing home sales, it will be a positive for U.S. housing. Specific to PulteGroup's third quarter results, we experienced better home buying demand in parts of the Midwest, Northeast, and the Southeast in markets ranging from Cleveland, Charlotte, and the Coastal Carolinas to Tennessee and D.C., Northern Virginia. I'm also extremely pleased again to call out the relative strength of our Florida operations as our teams there continue to execute at a very high level. As you can see in this morning's press release, third quarter net new orders for the state of Florida increased by 2% over the prior year.

Market conditions are competitive, but our local teams are led by experienced operators who have assembled exceptional land pipelines over the years. As has been the case for much of the year, consumer demand in our Texas and Western markets remains soft in the third quarter. You have heard me say before that we can't be margin proud. When operating in more difficult market conditions, our local teams understand the importance of finding the market and turning assets while not giving away price needlessly. That is the approach we continue to take as we compete for sales and work to sell through finished inventory. I think it's fair to say that home buying demand in 2025 has been more challenging than the industry was anticipating. While it has been more challenging, I think PulteGroup's year-to-date results continue to demonstrate the importance of our diversified and balanced approach to the business.

With a platform that extends across multiple markets and buyer groups and a business model that allows for greater operating flexibility, we continue to deliver strong cash flows and high returns. Before wrapping up, I think it's appropriate to offer some thoughts about comments issued recently by President Trump regarding the need for more housing and better affordability. We agree with the President's perspective as it is consistent with industry estimates that routinely reference an underbuild in this country of three to four million houses. While the supply deficit certainly has an impact on affordability generally, the complexities of the new home construction industry dictate that tackling a problem of this scale requires a coordinated and comprehensive approach that brings together federal, state, and local leaders working in partnership with the new home construction industry.

We share the President's focus on housing in wanting to make the American dream more attainable for everyone. We look forward to helping address the issue of housing in America and working with the administration in developing actionable solutions that are consistent with Pulte's long-term strategic plans. Now let me turn the call over to Jim Zeumer.

Okay. Thanks, Ryan. We are prepared to open the call for questions so that we can get to as many questions as possible during the remaining time of this call. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. I now ask Rob to explain the process and open the call for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. As a reminder, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question today comes from the line of Matthew Bouley from Barclays. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the questions. I'd love to pick up on that last comment there, Ryan. Maybe if you can kind of delve into a little bit your dialogue with either the FHFA and the administration today, from your perspective, what's sort of the right path forward here for Pulte in the home building industry? I'm curious if you can expand on that last comment around what maybe some of those actionable solutions could potentially be. Thank you.

Yeah. Matt, in fairness, we're not going to have this call be dominated by some of the comments of recent past. There are too many positive things happening inside of our business, and we're too excited about the future strategic direction that we're going. The prepared remarks that I just shared, I think, are fully comprehensive of how we feel on the topic. We have had communication with the administration, and we certainly think it is a complicated issue that is largely rooted in local politics and anti-growth mentalities. It's going to be complicated to unravel it, and it's going to take a coordinated effort. Hopefully, that helps, but it's taken us a long time to get into the situation that we're in as a country to create this structural housing shortage. It's going to take time to unwind it as well.

Okay. No, fair enough. I really appreciate those thoughts. Maybe secondly, kind of delving into your own strategy, I think I heard you mention at the top that you're planning to run spec production closer to 50% now. You'd been saying for a while you were trying to get it back down to 40%-45%. I mean, is this more of kind of a market-driven approach, just simply saying, "Look, this is where the demand is better today for quicker move-in homes," or any other subtle shifts around your intention going forward from a volume and production perspective? Thank you.

Yeah, Matt, there's probably two concepts here that I'd highlight. Number one, we've been saying consistently for the entire year, we wanted starts to be aligned with sales, and we'd ideally like our overall spec production to be our spec inventory to be 40%-45%. That hasn't changed. Because of the challenging sales environment that we've been in, we've sold fewer to-be-built homes than we would have anticipated. Just the way the math works out of what our overall backlog looks like, the math has yielded a slightly higher percentage of specs despite actually lowering the number of specs that we have in production. The headline percentage is higher. We're not worrying too much about that. We're more focused on what are the actual number of specs that we have that we're comfortable with.

What we really focused on is more dirt to-be-built sales, which is fully aligned with how we've historically operated the company. In due time, I think that percentage will come very much in line with where we ultimately want to be.

Our next question comes from the line of John Lovallo from UBS. Your line is open.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions as well. The first one kind of dovetails off of Ryan's comments towards the end there about Florida and the Southeast in particular. I mean, Florida orders were up about 2.4%. Southeast was up 1%. I mean, our checks seem to indicate sort of some stabilization in demand, pricing, and even inventory in these markets. Just curious for your comments on those factors. Are you seeing something similar?

Yeah, we are, John. There are markets that we've been bullish on. Even if you went back two or three quarters ago when there was a lot of concern about Florida, we were pretty consistent in saying Florida is a good market for us. We've got great locations. We're not worried. I think the results that we demonstrated over the last two quarters, so we're now two quarters in a row of showing positive comps in the Florida business. I think it is indicative, one, of the outstanding locations that we have that buyers want to live in those communities. Two, I think there is some good stabilization in Florida. You mentioned the Southeast as well. I think the same holds true. The Southeast and Florida are still places people want to move to. The weather is certainly desirable. From a business standpoint, the locations are generally pro-growth.

They've got good tax policies. I think those are things that are very accommodative to having a healthy housing operation.

Okay, that's encouraging. The $79 per square foot in stick and brick being consistent, I think that's encouraging. We've heard on the land side that not only are builders able to get a little bit of a break on the development side, but actually able to go back and renegotiate price and take down schedules. Are you seeing anything along those lines as well that might be helpful as we move into next year?

We are, John. We're definitely seeing some favorable terms, particularly on earth moving and some of the underground work, things that involve heavy machinery. We're seeing more favorable terms than what we've experienced over the last few years. Those input costs that go into our future lot costs, I think that'll certainly be beneficial in helping to reduce the amount of land inflation that we've been seeing.

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

PulteGroup (PHM) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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