The homebuilding and lot development industries have from time to time experienced significant difficulties that can affect the cost or timing of construction, including:
- difficulty in acquiring land suitable for residential building at affordable prices in locations where our potential customers want to live;
- delays in receiving the necessary approvals from municipalities or other government agencies;
- shortages of qualified subcontractors;
- reliance on local subcontractors, manufacturers, distributors and land developers who may be inadequately capitalized;
- shortages of materials; and
- significant increases in the cost of materials, particularly increases in the price of lumber, drywall and cement, which are significant components of home construction costs.
During the last few years, we experienced multiple disruptions in our supply chain, which resulted in shortages of certain building materials and tightness in the labor market. This caused our construction cycle to lengthen and costs of building materials to increase. We began to see improvements in our construction cycle time in fiscal 2023 and expect our cycle times to return to normalized levels during fiscal 2024; however, if shortages and cost increases in building materials and tightness in the labor market increase, our construction cycle time and profit margins could be adversely impacted.
In addition, tariffs, duties and/or trade restrictions imposed or increased on imported materials and goods that are used in connection with the construction and delivery of our homes, including steel, aluminum and lumber, may raise our costs for these items or for the products made with them. These factors may cause construction delays or cause us to incur more costs building our homes.