Existing-Home Sales, Lennar Hit Builders

Lennar's new orders plummeted 45% from a year ago to 4,396 homes.

In a statement, Lennar CEO Stuart Miller sounded an alarm that the housing industry is ready for its next leg down.

"With the U.S. housing inventory growing in excess of absorption and limited credit availability, the prospect of further deterioration in the homebuilding industry will likely become reality absent Federal government action," Miller said. "To that end, we are hopeful that the Federal government will acknowledge the need for further reform and will institute programs designed to stabilize and facilitate the recovery of the housing market."

Much of the company's quarterly loss was due to new land impairment charges and writedowns to joint ventures, which together totaled $137 million.

Lennar's gross margin on home sales improved to 8.7%, compared with 7.2% a year ago, as the company benefited from selling land and homes that were written down in value a year ago.

Selling costs increased to 15.4% of revenue, compared with 14.7% a year earlier.

Yesterday, the Census Bureau said inventories of homes totaled 10.9 months of supply in May, up from 10.7 months in April. New-home sales across the U.S. fell 2.5% in May (from April), but were down 40.3% from a year earlier.

New-home sales across the U.S. remain slightly above the levels of the 1991 recession.