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Date

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. ET

Call participants

  • Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer — Robert H. Schottenstein
  • Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer — Phillip G. Creek
  • President, M/I Financial — Derek R. Klutch

Takeaways

  • Revenue -- $921 million, a 6% decrease, with average closing price of $459,000, down 4% due to product mix and higher incentives.
  • Pretax income -- $89.2 million, declining 39%, with a pretax income margin of 10% and EBITDA of $99 million versus $154 million last year.
  • Homes closed -- 1,914 homes, a 3% decrease; about 50% of deliveries were inventory homes sold and closed within the same quarter.
  • New contracts -- 2,350 homes, a 3% increase; monthly cadence was up 11% in January, up 7% in February, and down 6% in March due to heightened market uncertainty.
  • Gross margin -- 22.0%, down 390 basis points year over year; attributed to increased buyer incentives and higher lot costs.
  • SG&A expenses -- 12.7% of revenue, rising from 11.5% last year, with absolute SG&A up 4% driven by expanded community count and headcount.
  • Return on equity -- 12% for the quarter; book value per share reached a record $125, up 11%, or $12 per share, year over year.
  • Community count -- 230 at quarter end (91 Northern, 139 Southern), up from 226; company plans for average 5% growth in community count this year.
  • Regional performance -- Northern region new contracts fell 4%, deliveries fell 9%; Southern region contracts rose 8%, deliveries increased 1%, with Southern representing 60% of total deliveries.
  • Smart Series sales -- Accounted for 47% of total sales, down from 53%, and skewed higher in Texas (San Antonio and Houston nearly 90%).
  • Mortgage operations -- 1,579 loans originated, up 3%; capture rate reached 96%, up from 92%. Mortgage pretax income was $14.1 million, down 12% on slightly lower margins and average loan amounts. Average mortgage was $401,000; average credit score 747; 85% average loan-to-value.
  • Incentives strategy -- Management continues to use 30-year fixed-rate buydowns, offering a "[4/7/8]" rate on inventory homes deliverable within 60 days and "very, very low 5s" on to-be-built homes, adapting daily to market volatility.
  • Lot position -- Company owns approximately 24,200 lots (less than 3 years' supply) and controls 25,800 via options, totaling about 50,000 lots or approximately a 5-year supply.
  • Balance sheet strength -- Shareholders' equity reached a record $3.2 billion; no borrowings on the $900 million credit facility; $767 million in cash; debt-to-capital 18%; net debt-to-capital negative 2%.
  • Share repurchases -- $50 million in stock repurchased this quarter; 18% of outstanding shares repurchased in the last 4 years; $170 million remains authorized for future repurchases.
  • Land spend -- $79 million on land purchases and $104 million on development, totaling $183 million during the quarter.
  • Inventory homes -- 740 completed inventory homes at quarter end versus 686 last year; 2,584 total inventory homes versus 2,385 last year; 999 in the Northern region and 1,585 in the Southern region.
  • Buyer profile -- Approximately 50% of sales to first-time buyers; remaining sales to move-up buyers. Average down payment was 15%.

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Risks

  • Management explicitly cited "challenging and impacted" homebuilding conditions due to affordability, consumer confidence, Middle East conflict, and broader economic uncertainty.
  • "gross margin was 22%, down 390 basis points year over year due to higher home buyer incentives and higher lot costs versus the same period a year ago."
  • CEO Schottenstein referenced the West Coast of Florida, "from Tampa down through Sarasota," as "the most challenging right now," noting it is "just nowhere near what it once was."
  • Mortgage pretax income declined 12% to $14.1 million, reflecting margin pressure and lower average mortgage amounts.

Summary

M/I Homes (MHO +3.07%) reported a 6% decline in revenue to $921 million and a significant 39% drop in pretax income, directly affected by declining gross margin and a 4% lower average closing price caused by increased incentives and product mix. Management maintained sales momentum with a 3% year-over-year contract increase and cited ongoing strength from first-time buyers, though revealed continued industry headwinds such as affordability, volatile buyer sentiment, and regional performance pressures. Mortgage operations showed increased loan origination and capture rate, yet delivered reduced pretax profit amid lower margins and average loan values. High liquidity, negative net debt, and an ongoing share repurchase program underpin management's confidence, while strategic use of mortgage buydowns and a diversified lot portfolio seek to offset macroeconomic uncertainty.

  • Division contributions were led by Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Orlando, and Raleigh, with Southern region operations now accounting for 60% of total company deliveries.
  • SG&A as a percentage of revenue rose by 120 basis points, attributed to increased selling expenses and larger community and employee base.
  • Management confirmed no impact yet from rising fuel costs on vendor pricing, but acknowledged vendor requests, and remains prepared for future negotiation as needed.
  • Leadership noted no plans to accelerate share buybacks despite strong liquidity, but will continue to revisit the policy with the Board.
  • Community expansion continues, with 22 new communities opened and 24 closed in the quarter, and further openings planned for the year, targeting higher price points for steadier demand.

Industry glossary

  • Smart Series: M/I Homes’ branded line of more affordable, streamlined single-family homes and townhomes, targeting value-focused buyers.
  • Spec (Inventory) home: A home built by the builder without a specific buyer order, intended for quicker move-in and often used to accelerate sales pace.
  • Capture rate (Mortgage): The percentage of homebuyers who use the builder’s affiliated mortgage operation for financing.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Robert Schottenstein: Thanks, Phil. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We had a very solid first quarter, highlighted by revenues of $921 million, pretax income of $89 million and a strong pretax income return of 10%. Clearly, during the quarter, new home demand and homebuilding conditions continue to be challenged, challenging and impacted by affordability and even consumer confidence, the conflict in the Middle East and general uncertainty and volatility in the broader economy. Despite this, we were very pleased to increase our first quarter new contracts by 3%, generate gross margins of 22%, and produce a return on equity of 12%.

Our sales momentum from late last year continued into January and February, even with the winter storms that had a pretty significant impact on a number of our markets at the beginning of the year. During this period, we saw improved traffic and heightened homebuyer activity as we begin the spring selling season. However, market conditions slightly shifted at the end of February and into March as events in the Middle East pushed mortgage rates up higher, impacted gas prices and contributed to further market uncertainty. In managing all of this, mortgage rate buydowns continue to be an important part of our sales strategy.

We continue to successfully balance margins and sales pace at the community level and offer mortgage interest rate buydowns both on spec sales and to-be-built sales as a leading incentive to promote our sales activity. During the quarter, we closed 1,914 homes a 3% decrease compared to a year ago. Our first quarter total revenue decreased 6% to $921 million, and pretax income decreased 39% to $89.2 million. Still, we ended the quarter with a record $3.2 billion in shareholders' equity, and our book value per share is now at a record $125, up 11% from last year. As I mentioned, our sales improved 3% year-over-year. We sold 2,350 homes during the quarter.

Our monthly sales pace averaged 3.4 homes per community, consistent with 2025. We continue to see high-quality buyers in terms of creditworthiness with average credit scores of 747 and an average down payment of 15%. Our Smart Series, which is our most affordable line of homes, continues to be an important contributor to our sales performance. During the first quarter, Smart Series sales were about 47% of total sales compared to 53% a year ago. Company-wide, about half of our buyers are first-time homebuyers, while the other half are first, second or third move up. The diversity of our product offering remains an important factor and contributing to our sales performance and overall profitability.

We ended the first quarter with 230 communities and are on track to grow our community count in 2026 by an average of about 5% from 2025. Turning to our markets. Our division income contributions in the first quarter were led by Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Orlando and Raleigh. New contracts for the first quarter in our Northern region decreased by 4%, while new contracts in our Southern region increased by 8% compared to a year ago. Our deliveries in the Northern region decreased 9% compared to last year and represented just under 40% of our company-wide total. Our Southern region deliveries increased by 1% over a year ago and represented the other 60% of our deliveries.

We have an excellent land position. Our owned and controlled lot position in the Southern region decreased by 13% compared to last year, and increased by 21% compared to a year ago in our Northern region, 40% of our owned and controlled lots are in the Northern region, the other 60% in the South. Company-wide, we own approximately 24,200 lots, which is slightly less than a 3-year supply. In addition, we control approximately 25,800 lots via option contracts, which results in a total of roughly 50,000 owned and controlled lots equating to about a 5-year supply. Our balance sheet continues to be very strong.

As I previously mentioned, we ended the first quarter with an all-time record $3.2 billion of equity, 0 borrowings under our $900 million unsecured revolving credit facility and over $750 million in cash. This resulted in a debt-to-capital ratio of 18%, and a net debt-to-capital ratio of negative 2%. As I conclude, I'll remind everyone that 2026 marks our 50th year in business. We're very proud of our record and look to build on our success in 2026. Given the strength of our balance sheet, the breadth of our geographic footprint and excellent land position and well-located communities along with a diverse product offering, we are well positioned to continue delivering very solid results in 2026.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Phil.

Phillip Creek: Thanks, Bob. Our new contracts were up 3% when compared to last year. They were up 11% in January, up 7% in February and down 6% in March. Our cancellation rate for the quarter was 8%. Our monthly new contracts increased sequentially throughout the quarter. Last year's March new contracts were the highest month of 2025. 50% of our first quarter sales were the first-time buyers and 70% were inventory homes. Our community count was 230 at the end of the first quarter compared to 226 a year ago. The breakdown by region is 91 in the Northern region and 139 in the Southern region. During the quarter, we opened 22 new communities while closing 24.

We delivered 1,914 homes in the first quarter. About 50% of these deliveries came from inventory homes that were both sold and delivered within the quarter. And as of March 31, we had 4,600 homes in the field versus 4,800 homes in the field a year ago. Revenue decreased 6% in the first quarter. Our average closing price for the first quarter was $459,000, a 4% decrease when compared to last year's first quarter average closing price of $476,000. Our first quarter gross margin was 22%, down 390 basis points year-over-year due to higher home buyer incentives and higher lot costs versus the same period a year ago.

Our first quarter SG&A expenses were 12.7% of revenue versus 11.5% a year ago, and our first quarter expenses increased 4% versus a year ago. Increased costs were primarily due to increased selling expenses, increased community count and additional headcount. Interest income, net of interest expense for the quarter was $3.1 million. Our interest incurred was $9 million. We had solid returns for the first quarter given the challenges facing our industry. Our pretax income was 10% and our return on equity was 12%. During the quarter, we generated $99 million of EBITDA compared to $154 million a year ago, and our effective tax rate was 24% in the first quarter, same as the prior year first quarter.

Our earnings per diluted share for the quarter was $2.55 per share compared to $3.98 last year, and our book value per share is now $125 a share, a $12 per share increase from a year ago. Now Derek Klutch will address our mortgage company results.

Derek Klutch: Thanks, Phil. Our mortgage and title operations achieved pretax income of $14.1 million, a decrease of 12% from $16.1 million in 2025's first quarter. Revenue decreased 1% from last year to $31.2 million due to slightly lower margins on loans sold and a lower average loan amount, but offset by an increase in loans originated. Average loan to value on our first mortgages for the quarter was 85% compared to 83% in 2025's first quarter, 66% of the loans closed in the quarter were conventional and 34% FHA/VA, compared to 57% and 43%, respectively, for 2025's first quarter. Our average mortgage amount decreased to $401,000 in 2026 this first quarter compared to $406,000 last year.

Loans originated increased to 1,579 loans, which was up 3% from last year, while the volume of loans sold increased by 1%. Finally, our mortgage operation captured 96% of our business in the first quarter, up from 92% last year. Now I will turn the call back over to Phil.

Phillip Creek: Thanks, Derek. Our financial position continues to be very strong. We ended the first quarter with no borrowings under our $900 million credit facility and had a cash balance of $767 million. We continue to have one of the lowest debt levels of the public homebuilders and are very well positioned. Our bank line matures in 2030 and our public debt matures in 2028 and 2030, and has interest rates below 5%. Our unsold land investment at the end of the quarter was $1.9 billion compared to $1.7 billion a year ago. At March 31, we had $844 million of raw land and land under development, and $1 billion of finished unsold lots.

During 2026 first quarter, we spent $79 million on land purchases and $104 million on land development for a total of $183 million. At the end of the quarter, we had 740 completed inventory homes and 2,584 total inventory homes. And of the total inventory, 999 are in the Northern region and 1,585 in the Southern region. At March 31, 2025, we had 686 completed inventory homes and 2,385 total inventory homes. We spent $50 million in the first quarter repurchasing our stock and have $170 million remaining under our Board authorization. In the last 4 years, we have repurchased 18% of our outstanding shares. This completes our presentation. We'll now open the call for any questions or comments.

Operator: Your first question comes from the line of Natalie Kulasekere from Zelman & Associates.

Unknown Analyst: I'm just curious, have you received any form of communication regarding any cost increases from your vendors because of fuel prices, maybe it could be a fuel surcharge stacked on top of your existing contracts? And if you have, do you think it's something that you could negotiate with your trade partners?

Robert Schottenstein: Thanks, Natalie. The short answer is yes. The issue of increased fuel has come up in several divisions. I don't know if it's come up everywhere. I'm aware of 2 or 3 or 4 instances where it has and it could well be more. So far, there hasn't been much impact. In fact, so far, I think there's been no impact.

Having said that, if the conditions were to persist at worse, at some point, we've been in business for 50 years, and one of the things we're most proud about is not only the consistency of our strategy, but the long-standing relationships both at the national level and at the local level that we have with so many of our subcontractors and suppliers, many of whom we've been doing business with for a long, long time. And one of the reasons that we're able to do business with people for a long time is we try to deal very fairly with them both in good time and in bad. You didn't ask maybe this as part of your question.

But during the last year, we've gone back to a number of those subcontractors from our point of view and sought to see cost reductions. We had a very, very aggressive, intense internal cost reduction effort that we launched, I think, a little over a year ago, maybe a little more than a year ago in anticipation of the current conditions with declining margins and so forth. And we had quite a bit of success doing that. We know that's a 2-way street, and there's times that they work with us. There's times that we're going to have to work with them.

So far on the gasoline and oil situation, though, I'm not aware of any impact, unless you are, Phil. I hope that's helpful.

Unknown Analyst: Yes. And I guess I just have one more follow-up. So your ASP within the $470,000 to $480,000 range, if not higher across most quarters since 2022. So is there anything specific that drove this lower this quarter? And if so, how should we look at it going forward? Should it kind of be lower than the $470,000, $480,000 range? Or do you think it's going to -- do you reckon it's going to climb back up to that?

Robert Schottenstein: It surprised me that it was -- we knew it would be lower. I didn't think it would be maybe quite this much lower. It's not that much. When you really look at it, $470,000 versus $460,000. Having said that, affordability is the favorite buzzword in our industry today other than maybe rate buydowns as I think about it. But affordability is up there. And really, it began in our company about 5 years ago where we began a very concerted effort to produce more affordable product, particularly attached townhome product. Company-wide, it's probably maybe 20% or 25% of our business, somewhere in there. It moves a little quarter-to-quarter with new communities and so forth and timing of closeouts.

And I think it's -- I actually think it's more mix than anything else. I'd expect our average sales price to be at this level, maybe slightly higher, so they bounce around in this -- in the upper 4s for the foreseeable future.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Kenneth Zener from Seaport Research Partners.

Kenneth Zener: I wonder, given your Smart Series, very successful, 47, I'm just going to call it half. And how -- can you talk to that. Are most of your intra-quarter order closings coming from the Smart Series almost by definition because it's like prebuilt? Is that the correct assumption that I'm making?

Robert Schottenstein: Not necessarily. We manage our spec levels or inventory home levels on a subdivision-by-subdivision basis. And it's less related to maybe the price point of the community at times than -- I think it's more -- it more relates to the location of the community where we think the buyers are coming from. Clearly, I think there's a few more specs with attached product because you build building by building. And some of that is Smart Series, some of it isn't. I don't think there's really any discernible difference between intra-quarter closings coming from Smart Series spec homes versus the other half of our business. And by the way, not every Smart Series buyer is a first-time homebuyer either.

It's just a product line that we've tried to push really hard to take advantage of bringing our price points down. But Phil, do you want to add something?

Phillip Creek: Yes. And overall, we feel really good about where our spec levels are. As Bob says, it really varies community to community. This has been a higher percentage, about 50% of the closings occurring within the quarter. Reduced cycle time has helped. It doesn't take us as long to get houses built as it did a year ago. We're also trying to continue to be focused on when we put specs out there, let's make sure we put the right specs out there on the right lots. We're like most builders, we would prefer to have more dirt sales, more to-be-built sales, because, in general, those houses have more upgrades, higher price point, higher margins.

But you also have to balance off when you're offering interest rate buydowns when you start getting longer term, it's harder to get those effective rate buydown. So a lot of those things are being balanced off. But overall, we were pretty pleased with the quarter with our closings, but we feel good about our investment level in specs.

Robert Schottenstein: The other thing I'll mention just because it gets a lot of attention. For years, the differential in margin between specs and to-be-builts has been an issue in our industry where anywhere from 100 or 200 points -- 100 or 200 basis points of margin erosion occurred between specs and to-be-built, in some cases, 300, 400, 500 points. It sort of moves around market-to-market and period to period. It's that issue has never been lost on us. We've always, always tried to generate more to-be-built than spec sales. Having said all that, we're also trying to successfully balance pace. And we've -- initially, when we first got into rate buy-downs, it was strictly for specs.

But for some time now, we've been heavily focused on rate buy-downs for to-be-builts as well because they do generate higher margins. And it should go without saying, but I guess I'll say it anyway, all of that gets poured into the strategy, which we think has helped us generate very strong returns compared to our peers quarter-to-quarter.

Kenneth Zener: Yes. And I see that. I wonder if homebuilding doesn't -- the companies in general, you're not unique in this, you don't report the segment data and you have 2 segments, right, with the South Texas and Florida being big inputs there. Given the margin swings that we had over [indiscernible] 18 months where the North is now doing better than the South yet as I look at your new contracts and closings, I see that North is declining in terms of the mix, right, as a percent of the total, just the year-over-year change was down in the North, for example, on deliveries.

Can you talk to how much of that, the margin we're seeing is just that the higher-margin North isn't flowing through? And then maybe comment a little bit on the Southern mix. I think in the past, you've talked about, right, Texas being larger than Florida in that southern segment. If you could just give us a little sense of how those different regions are impacting the margins.

Robert Schottenstein: Happy to do it. In general, over the last year or so, our margins have held up better in our Midwest markets than in our Florida markets. For a while, our Florida markets had some of the best margins in the company. That's not the case today. We have had very strong margins in Dallas for a long time. They are lower now than they were in that market, like many is off a little bit. But comparatively speaking, and to give good context, we still have very solid margins in Dallas.

The percentage of our business, our Texas markets, which really you can't claim newness anymore, they were new for a while, but those markets are really growing a lot for us. And our margins in Charlotte are very strong. We have very solid margins in Raleigh as well. It's sort of market to market. I think I mentioned that our most profitable divisions in the first quarter were Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Orlando, Raleigh, but I don't want to leave out Charlotte or as I think about Cincinnati, Minneapolis, very solid operations in these markets. Look, I wish all 17 of our markets were performing at a high level. But most are. And we're very encouraged by that.

When I say high level, given the conditions holding up quite well, I think right now, if I had to identify any part of our business that is feeling the pinch more than others, it would be the West Coast of Florida, really from Tampa down through Sarasota. That appears to be the most challenging right now. It's not horrible, but it's just nowhere near what it once was, and we're working through it.

Phillip Creek: We're really pleased with where we are having the 17 markets, having the diversification. Sure, we all remember a couple of years ago how hot Florida and Texas were, but those markets have come back down. The Midwest [ airline ] has never got quite that hot. And plus, we have a really good presence. We talk about meaningful presence all time. We have a good presence in most of our markets. We're a pretty big player. So having this diversity in markets and also in price points and products.

So we do have 50% first-time buyers, but that tends to be the [ 400 or 450 ] type price point as opposed to that kind of down and dirty, which there's a whole lot of competition. So again, we try to react to every market based on what the competitive landscape is, land position and those type of things, we try to really focus on having better locations in better schools, near better shopping, better transportation, again, try to give people a reason to buy, not just price. So that's what we focus on.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jay McCanless from Citizens.

Jay McCanless: So sticking on kind of the questions on the North. Could you talk about the increase year-on-year in the lots from the North? And is that something that potentially could help gross margins down the road?

Robert Schottenstein: I think that the increase in the lot position, some of it's -- what's the right word, episodic. I don't know if that's the right word or not. Sometimes things come on at different times because they're delayed and it skews a quarter. We have a lot of opportunity to grow in Indianapolis, still Chicago, Minneapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, maybe slightly less so in Detroit. But you take those others, we believe we can grow our operations there 5% to 10% a year for the foreseeable future. In some cases, maybe slightly more. We have a lot of growth opportunities.

Having said that, though, in Charlotte and Raleigh, our Raleigh operation has underperformed from a volume standpoint, not profitability, in large part just because of the incredible delays we've experienced in bringing some new deals to market. We're super excited about where we -- as we look out over the next number of quarters, we're very excited about what we have coming on in Raleigh over the next several years. And we still have big plans to grow in Houston and Dallas, maybe slightly less so in Austin, but still -- we still intend to grow in Austin, and we're growing in San Antonio. Big plans for Fort Myers, Naples. We're really just getting started there.

We expect that to be a very meaningful contributor to us down the road. Tampa and Orlando, we've had top 5 positions in both those markets for a long, long time and are not going to give up market share in either place. And then Nashville. Nashville has been a slower start for us. I thought we'd be a little further along than we are right now. The only encouraging thing is I don't think we're alone. You tend to see that with other builders as well. But having said that, we're clearly going to grow our operation there this year. It's well, well ahead of where it was a year ago.

And all of this should contribute as the markets -- I mean we don't know what's going to happen with the economy. We'll adjust as necessary what will happen to margins down the road. I think that over time -- I mean, I don't know what will happen, but I think over time, we've always pushed very hard to be in the upper tier. And I believe we -- wherever homebuilding margins settle, I think you'll see M/I in the upper tier of margin performance relative to our peers. Our mortgage operation contributes to that as well.

We had a 95% plus capture rate in the first quarter given all the activity with rate buy-downs, even though I'm very proud of our mortgage operation. If we weren't at least a 90% capture rate, I think that would require a discussion because it seems like everybody should be going through our mortgage company with all the rate buy-downs that we and our peers are doing. But having said that, M/I Homes capture rates the highest in the industry, and we're very proud of that. And that contributes to profitability as well.

Phillip Creek: And also, Jay, this is Phil. Just to add as far as from a land position standpoint, I mean, you know what we try to do, we really focus on what do we own, and we own today about 24,000 lots. A year ago, we owned about 25,000. It's kind of changed a little bit inside. Today, we own almost -- we own 10,000 finished lots. We like to own about a year of supply. And with our run rate, a little less than 10 right now, we're really well positioned there. Our finished lot cost today is up about 5% versus a year ago.

Land development costs have kind of settled down a little bit the last couple of quarters. So we feel like we're really in a good situation from a land position standpoint. Bob talked about growth. We do have a few more -- a few less houses in the field than a year ago. But again, when we're building houses faster, we don't need to put the investment out there as fast. So we're trying to be efficient. We're trying to have specs where we need it. So again, we are very focused on trying to continue our growth, but we want it to be profitable growth with solid returns, not just give a bunch of houses away.

We think we do have a really good land position. So we are excited about where we are.

Jay McCanless: That's great, guys. So the second question I had, if you think about Smart Series, are most of those communities located in the Southern region? Or I guess what's the mix between the Northern and the Southern for the Smart Series communities?

Robert Schottenstein: I think it's pretty evenly balanced with a couple of exceptions. San Antonio is almost 90% Smart Series, our communities there. Houston approaching 90% Smart Series, maybe even a little higher. But if you take those out and look at the other 15 markets, it's pretty close to 30% to 50% of our business. They tend to have slightly higher absorptions. So it skews and distorts the actual sales number. But it's somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2.

Jay McCanless: That's good to know, Bob. And then if you could, Phil, maybe talk about what the gross margin looks like in backlog at the end of the quarter.

Phillip Creek: Sorry, the backlog?

Jay McCanless: Yes. Gross margin and the backlog at the end of the quarter.

Phillip Creek: It really hasn't changed much, Jay. And of course, the backlog is not that big. We are focused on trying to do more to-be-built houses with higher margins in general and so forth, really hasn't moved much. The thing that's hard is that like this quarter, when half of our closings got sold and closed in the quarter. So it's just really, really hard to predict average sale price, really hard to predict margins because so much stuff goes through.

Robert Schottenstein: Yes. I mean I know that you all would love to see us give margin guidance. I think it's a bit of a -- I'll just say it, fools errand. There's just so much uncertainty. During our last conference call, we weren't talking about a war. We weren't talking about $4 gas prices. In 90 days, look how things like that have changed. It's very, very hard to predict what's going to happen. Conditions right now are marked with uncertainty. Having said that, I think housing is holding up pretty damn well. I've seen a whole lot worse, and so has anyone that's been in this business more than a couple of years.

We've been in business 50 years, this is going to be 1 of our 5 or 6 best years in company history, and that's pretty damn good. Sign me up. So I think we're very well positioned to deal with the conditions as they are. I think we were encouraged that our first quarter gross margin sequentially were almost the same as they were in the fourth quarter. Does that mean they're leveling off? I guess we'll know when we know. I just know that we'll continue to do everything we can to push profitability. We're very proud in this environment to have a double-digit pretax income percentage of 10%, not easy to do.

I know a couple of builders do, but most don't. And I think that it's one thing to say we're focused on profitability. It's another thing to deliver it, and I think we're delivering it.

Phillip Creek: And we spend a lot of time, Jay, talking about flow, not just the flow of spec inventory. For instance, at the end of the quarter, as I said, we have about 740 completed specs. At the end of the first quarter of last year, it was 686. We also not only track those getting through, that doesn't mean we fire sell them to move them through. But again, we don't want to get too big on specs. We also keep track very closely at what specs are coming through the system, are they drywall or what's the stage of them. So again, not just throw specs out there, [ willy-nilly ] every subdivision. But what can we work through?

What is the demand? What can we settle at a decent margin? And we do the same thing at land. We make sure that when we buy raw land, we get into development. We put the finished lots out there that we need that we can work through. But again, trying to do a better job on managing our investment levels. But again, we think we're in good shape, and we can react to whatever we need to.

Robert Schottenstein: The last thing I'll say, and it sounds like we're patting ourselves on the back, maybe we are, never gotten the build-to-rent business, we were the only builder that didn't, don't land bank, we're one of the only builders that doesn't. Our strategy has been pretty damn consistent for as long as I've been here. Focus on our communities, we focus on quality, we strive to deliver the highest levels of customer service that we can. And we try to produce -- build our homes in excellently well-located A communities all the time. There's no issue that distracts us from pace and margin on a community-by-community basis. Nothing gets more attention than that in our company.

And we have, within certain of our cities, special rate buy-down programs that are only applicable to certain lots in certain communities. We don't paint with a broad brush. We really try to manage this business on a subdivision-by-subdivision basis even within markets. And that's what we've always done. And that's what our management team is focused on, and it's worked for us.

Jay McCanless: Right. That's great. And actually, could you -- any qualitative, not quantitative, but qualitative commentary you can give about traffic or web traffic for April, just again, given some of the uncertainty that's out there? And then also, if you don't mind, Phil, can you repeat what the monthly order cadence was? I missed that part.

Robert Schottenstein: The only thing I'll say about traffic is given the market, I've been pleased with our traffic through the first quarter and through April so far. That's -- we'll just leave it at that because we don't -- the month is far from over, and we're optimistic, but we'll see. Phil, do you want to comment on this?

Phillip Creek: We're really focused also, I mean, we're opening a lot of stores. Last year, we opened about 80. This year, we plan on opening more than 80. So we're trying to open them the right way. In general, they're at a higher price point where we see a little more steady demand these days. But again, just staying on top of it community by community.

Jay McCanless: Right. And Phil, if you could, what was the monthly order cadence again, please?

Phillip Creek: During the quarter?

Jay McCanless: Yes.

Phillip Creek: Yes, the first quarter, let's see, Jay, we were up 11% in January. We were up 7% in February. March was down 6%, but last year's March was the highest month of last year. And we did sell more houses in February than we did in January. We sold more houses than March than we did in February. So overall, we were pretty pleased with our sales.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Buck Horne from Raymond James.

Buck Horne: I kind of want to ask you the questions in slightly different ways. I'm wondering thinking sort of the monthly cadence of -- or just how you responded to March's volatility in terms of incentives, did you have to -- or did you increase or lean into certain incentives more in March to try to offset the mortgage rate volatility or conversely, was there just enough natural seasonal demand where you kind of were able to keep the same strategy in place? I'm just kind of wondering if there's a potential carryforward to second quarter margins just due to the incentives that were provided.

Robert Schottenstein: Normally, I wouldn't want to get too specific, even though it's all on our website for our competitors to see. But I'll just say what has worked for us on specs for the most part is even though we've got see people working with the [ 2/1 ] and the [ 3/2/1 ] buydowns, some buyers, some subdivisions, we see some ARM product. But the vast, vast majority of our buyers want one thing, and that's a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

And what we have led with for quite some time now and been pretty consistent with it on homes that can be delivered within roughly 60 days, so call it inventory homes is a [ 4/7/8 ] rate on both FHA/VA as well as conventional. And we've also offered on to-be-builts that has a long-term rate lock a rate in the very, very low 5s. And we have found those 2 things, there are some exceptions, it's probably more than 2 or 3 or 5 exceptions, but we have 200-plus communities. The vast majority of our communities, those programs are what is working for us now and resulted in our 3% year-over-year increase in sales.

The cost went up, went down, then it went up during the quarter. It went down before we started bombing Iran. And then afterwards, it went up. And it's been bumping around quite a bit since. We live in a minute to minute news cycle where there's a constant overreaction to good news or not. So all that affects what's happening with rates, and there's been a fair amount of volatility with the 10-year, I mean, between 440 and the low 420s. So when it goes up, it costs us a little more if we're buying it on that day. We look at it, we look at it every day.

Derek is sitting right here, his team at M/I Financial is pretty intensely focused on this every single day.

Buck Horne: That's very helpful. I think that's pretty clear. I appreciate that extra color there. Secondly, I'm kind of curious thinking through your -- just the way the business is set up right now, you're throwing off quite a bit of positive cash flow. You've dialed back the land spend, your land position seems to be in a really good position already. So I'm just wondering if you think through the possibility of the -- you've been very programmatic about the share repurchase schedule, but you're still building up quite a bit of cash.

I'm just wondering if you think that there's a possibility that you'd kind of increase the kind of the schedule of the buybacks that you're penciling in for the remainder of the year and just at some point in the future.

Robert Schottenstein: We talk about it with our Board, maybe not every Board meeting, but at least every other. We have a meeting coming up in 2 weeks. We'll probably discuss it at that meeting. I don't really see any change, but it's possible, I guess. I don't know. I think we're going to stay sort of where we are. I don't know if you want to add to that.

Phillip Creek: No, I agree. Also, we're not really anticipating the cash to build up that much more. We are a little lower now than we thought we would be internally. I would have a few more spec dollars out there than I have, do a little better job managing that. I did mention we're going to be opening quite a bit more as far as new stores and so forth. So I would still expect to have a pretty strong cash position, would not expect it to be up very much more.

And again, spending at the rate of $200 million a year to buy stock back, which we've done for the last few quarters, $50 a quarter, we still think it's pretty good. We bought back almost 20% of the stock the last couple of years. But that's something we'll continue to look at.

Buck Horne: Congrats. Appreciate the color.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. Turning over back to Mr. Creek.

Phillip Creek: Thank you for joining us. Look forward to speaking to you next quarter.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.