Information on Geographic Segments

12 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2013

Geographic Segments [Abstract]

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

Information on Operating Segments

The table below summarizes revenue and income (loss) before income taxes for each of the Company’s reportable segments for each of the fiscal years ended October 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 (amounts in thousands):

	Revenues						Income (loss) before income taxes
	2013		2012		2011		2013			2012			2011
Traditional Home Building:
North	$	485,052	$	350,639	$	320,797	$	32,648		$	13,913		$	11,504
Mid-Atlantic	652,855		535,710		465,142		79,801			62,970			48,762
South	641,331		361,810		273,303		67,934			18,928			(25,272		)
West	724,370		437,922		309,553		111,301			39,383			(27,113		)
Traditional Home Building	2,503,608		1,686,081		1,368,795		291,684			135,194			7,881
City Living	170,691		196,700		107,086		53,345			61,910			39,201
Corporate and other							(77,332		)	(84,162		)	(76,448		)
Total	$	2,674,299	$	1,882,781	$	1,475,881	$	267,697		$	112,942		$	(29,366	)

“Corporate and other” is comprised principally of general corporate expenses such as the Offices of the Executive Chairman, the Chief Executive Officer, and the corporate finance, accounting, audit, tax, human resources, risk management, marketing and legal groups, directly expensed interest, offset, in part, by interest income and income from the Company’s ancillary businesses and income from a number of its unconsolidated entities.

Total assets for each of the Company’s operating segments at October 31, 2013 and 2012 are shown in the table below (amounts in thousands):

	2013		2012
Traditional Home Building:
North	$	963,597	$	757,412
Mid-Atlantic	1,231,438		1,155,715
South	953,955		800,268
West	1,290,388		904,374
Traditional Home Building	4,439,378		3,617,769
City Living	674,302		486,970
Corporate and other	1,713,779		2,076,305
Total	$	6,827,459	$	6,181,044

“Corporate and other” is comprised principally of cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, deferred tax assets and the assets of the Company’s Gibraltar investments, manufacturing facilities and mortgage subsidiary.

The Company provided for inventory impairment charges and the expensing of costs that it believed not to be recoverable and write-downs of investments in unconsolidated entities (including the Company’s pro-rata share of impairment charges recognized by the unconsolidated entities in which it has an investment) for the years ended October 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, as shown in the table below; the net carrying value of inventory and investments in and advances to unconsolidated entities for each of the Company’s geographic segments at October 31, 2013 and 2012 is also shown (amounts in thousands).

	Net Carrying Value				Impairments
	At October 31,				Year ended October 31,
	2013		2012		2013			2012			2011
Inventory:
Land controlled for future communities:
Traditional Home Building:
North	$	16,267	$	10,606	$	822		$	(907	)	$	906
Mid-Atlantic	29,423		25,573		322			238			307
South	14,606		7,724		400			800			313
West	13,371		8,131		(361		)	205			16,184
Traditional Home Building	73,667		52,034		1,183			336			17,710
City Living	26,135		2,590					115			42
	99,802		54,624		1,183			451			17,752
Land owned for future communities:
Traditional Home Building:
North	135,282		29,791
Mid-Atlantic	308,585		396,562					300			300
South	158,457		141,644					918			16,700
West	448,125		232,546
Traditional Home Building	1,050,449		800,543		—			1,218			17,000
City Living	237,181		213,022
	1,287,630		1,013,565		—			1,218			17,000
Operating communities:
Traditional Home Building:
North	785,175		701,253		940			2,725			2,885
Mid-Atlantic	866,256		707,873		200			5,500			3,700
South	690,302		597,840		2,000			3,445			3,800
West	697,573		528,451		200			600			6,700
Traditional Home Building	3,039,306		2,535,417		3,340			12,270			17,085
City Living	223,674		129,097					800
	3,262,980		2,664,514		3,340			13,070			17,085
Total	$	4,650,412	$	3,732,703	$	4,523		$	14,739		$	51,837
Investments in and advances to unconsolidated entities:
Traditional Home Building:
Mid-Atlantic	$	11,850
South	50,452		$	31,252							$	15,170
West	110,467		116,452					$	(2,311	)	25,700
Traditional Home Building	172,769		147,704		—			(2,311		)	40,870
City Living	135,950		104,436
Corporate and other	94,414		78,477
Total	$	403,133	$	330,617	$	—		$	(2,311	)	$	40,870