Inventory And Land Held For Sale

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Inventory

Major components of inventory at December 31, 2024 and 2023 were ($000’s omitted):


	2024		2023
Homes under construction	$	5,770,355	$	5,262,850
Land under development	6,243,745		5,805,993
Raw land	548,848		606,005
Consolidated inventory not owned (a)	102,865		120,522
	$	12,665,813	$	11,795,370

(a) Consolidated inventory not owned includes land sold to third parties for which the Company retains a repurchase option.

In all periods presented, we capitalized all Homebuilding interest costs into inventory because the level of our active inventory exceeded our debt levels. Activity related to interest capitalized into inventory is as follows ($000’s omitted):


	Years Ended December 31,
	2024		2023		2022
Interest in inventory, beginning of period	$	139,078	$	137,262	$	160,756
Interest capitalized	112,416		126,040		130,051
Interest expensed	(111,534)		(124,224)		(153,545)
Interest in inventory, end of period	$	139,960	$	139,078	$	137,262

Land option agreements

We enter into land option agreements in order to procure land for the construction of homes in the future. Pursuant to these land option agreements, we generally provide a deposit to the seller as consideration for the right to purchase land at different times in the future, usually at predetermined prices. Such contracts enable us to defer acquiring portions of properties owned by third parties or unconsolidated entities until we have determined whether and when to exercise our option, which may serve to reduce our financial risks associated with long-term land holdings. Option deposits and pre-acquisition costs (such as environmental testing, surveys, engineering, and entitlement costs) are capitalized if the costs are directly identifiable with the land under option, the costs would be capitalized if we owned the land, and acquisition of the property is probable. Such costs are reflected in other assets and are reclassified to inventory upon taking title to the land. We write off deposits and pre-acquisition costs when it becomes probable that we will not go forward with the project or recover the capitalized costs. Such decisions take into consideration changes in local market conditions, the timing of required land purchases, the availability and best use of necessary incremental capital, and other factors. We record any such write-offs of deposits and pre-acquisition costs within other income (expense), net. See Note 1.

If an entity holding the land under option is a variable interest entity (“VIE”), our deposit represents a variable interest in that entity. No VIEs required consolidation at either December 31, 2024 or 2023 because we determined that we were not the primary beneficiary. Our maximum exposure to loss related to these VIEs is generally limited to our deposits and pre-acquisition costs under the applicable land option agreements. The following provides a summary of our interests in land option agreements ($000’s omitted):


	December 31, 2024				December 31, 2023
	Deposits and Pre-acquisition Costs		Remaining Purchase Price		Deposits and Pre-acquisition Costs		Remaining Purchase Price
Land options with VIEs	$	358,066	$	3,104,196	$	238,070	$	1,916,558
Other land options	700,397		6,127,486		466,139		4,531,566
	$	1,058,463	$	9,231,682	$	704,209	$	6,448,124

Land-related charges

We recorded the following land-related charges ($000's omitted):


	Statement of Operations Classification	2024		2023		2022
Net realizable value adjustments ("NRV") - land held for sale	Land sale and other cost of revenues	$	4,318	$	—	$	107
Land impairments	Home sale cost of revenues	11,988		19,603		2,990

Write-offs of deposits and pre-acquisition costs	Other income (expense), net	18,266		23,512		63,559
Total land-related charges		$	34,572	$	43,115	$	66,656

Our evaluations for land-related charges are based on our best estimates of the future cash flows for our communities. Due to uncertainties in the estimation process, the significant volatility in demand for new housing, the long life cycles of certain of our communities, and potential changes in our strategy related to certain communities, actual results could differ significantly from such estimates.