Just when you thought the recovery might be in place, there's news like yesterday's from Hovnanian Enterprises, the Red Bank-based construction company that is the state's largest homebuilder. Hovnanian's net loss for the quarter ending in October was $3.21 a share, compared with $5.79, a year earlier, they announced yesterday. Even though the losses are headed in the right direction, they were still worse than expected by Wall Street, which had a consensus estimate of a loss of $1.72 a share. Revenues, as we've said many times, are the key to growth, and Hovnanian's were down 39 percent.
For a while, the housing news appeared good on Wednesday, as the Commerce Department reported U.S. housing starts rose about 9 percent in November, exceeding expectations. Hovnanian was up 11 percent on the day, but when its figures were released at the end of the day - including an underwhelming 1 percent rise in new home contracts - the stock lost 6.6 percent in after-hours trading.
Hovnanian is moving in the right direction, but it still has a long way to go. I guess you could say the same about this economy.
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