M/I Homes posts loss for 1Q on ailing housing market

M/I Homes Inc. lost money in the first quarter as the struggling housing market dragged down sales, the homebuilder said Wednesday.

M/I Homes lost $22.2 million, or $1.58 per share, in the first quarter, compared with profit of $2.2 million, or 16 cents per share, in the first quarter last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a loss of 96 cents per share.

M/I Homes builds and sells homes in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, the Carolinas, and the Washington, D.C., area. The company has been hobbled by a housing slump that has lasted more than two years.

Sales contracted 28 percent to $156.1 million from $216.6 million but topped analysts' expectations for sales of $147 million.

M/I Homes signed 554 contracts and delivered 450 new homes during the first quarter, both representing declines of more than a third.

The company's backlog of home shrank by more than half to $243 million.

"Our first-quarter results reflect the difficult and challenging conditions facing the homebuilding industry," Chief Executive Robert H. Schottenstein said in a statement.

Schottenstein said the company has adopted a "defensive" strategy aimed at shrinking its inventory and expenses.