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Schuler Homes
earnings go
through roof

Strong isle sales help
the company more than
double its profits

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Helped by brisk home sales in Hawaii and on the mainland, Schuler Homes Inc. had a 102.3 percent increase in its first-quarter profit.

The company reported today that it had net earnings of $9.7 million, or 46 cents a share, for the three months through March 31, up from a profit of $4.8 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

Schuler's thinly traded Nasdaq shares closed up 12 cents to $6.12 today on Wall Street.

First-quarter revenues of $160.7 million were up 67.6 percent from $95.9 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Earnings in the latest quarter were helped by the sale of a parcel of land, which produced revenues of $6.2 million and an operating profit of $2 million, but aside from that the company said its core business was stronger.

Honolulu-based Schuler delivered of 88 residences built in Hawaii in the latest quarter, a 35.4 percent increase from 65 in the year-earlier period. In addition, it closed deals on six Hawaii units in joint ventures, compared with seven in the year-earlier quarter.

On the mainland, Schuler closed 635 sales in the latest quarter, most of them in Colorado, a 45.6 percent increase from 436 mainland sales a year earlier.

At the end of the latest quarter, Schuler had a backlog of 71 Hawaii homes sold but not yet delivered, at an average price of $281,789. A year earlier, the Hawaii backlog was 88 homes at an average of $276,068. In addition there was a Hawaii backlog of 16 homes in joint ventures, at an average of $98,250, up from a year-earlier joint venture backlog of three homes at average of $130,000.

The company's mainland backlog at the end of March was 1,569 homes at an average price of $133,848. The year-earlier mainland backlog was 766 homes at an average price of $184,817. Schuler also had a mainland backlog of 48 homes in joint ventures, averaging $319,562. A year earlier there were 42 mainland joint venture homes in backlog, at an average of $157,690.

Founded in Hawaii, Schuler Homes also operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.