Homebuilding titan Lennar posts a profit

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Home-building titan Lennar Corp. said this morning that it had posted its first quarterly profit since early 2007, when the housing market fell off a cliff.

The Miami builder’s operations still remain in the red and the company was only profitable after booking a $320-million tax gain.

The company said earnings for the three months ended Nov. 30 were $35.6 million (19 cents a share) compared with a loss of $811 million ($5.12 share) during the same period in 2008. [An earlier version said the quarterly loss was $810,989 in 2008.]

The company’s stock had risen 13.9%, or $1.90, to $15.60 by 9:57 a.m. PST following the news.

Lennar continues to struggle with competition from cheap foreclosure homes and other troubled properties. The market for new homes in the U.S. remains tenuous and highly reliant on government aid, and many experts expect the market to be rocky in coming months.

As a sign of what could come, sales of all new homes in November took an 11.3% plunge, the government recently reported. The drop reflected uncertainty over a first-time home buyer tax credit that was initially set to expire Nov. 30. Federal lawmakers in November extended it through April and revised it to include some buyers who already own a house.

But the extension didn’t come in time to entice purchasers to commit to entering into new-home contracts in November and many experts believe that the extension of the credit will be muted or, at best, will not translate into another pick-up in sales until the spring as the new deadline approaches.

The housing market has shown some signs of stabilization that is likely to continue given government support, Lennar chief executive Stuart Miller said in a statement this morning.

“During the fourth quarter, the overall housing market continued to move towards stabilization as more confident home buyers took advantage of increased affordability and the $8,000 federal tax credit,� he said. “While we continue to adapt our business in light of the current economic landscape and its challenges, we are optimistic that home buyers have recognized that the residential housing market is improving and will continue to take advantage of the extended housing stimulus.�

For the year, the company posted a narrower loss of $417.1 million ($2.45 per share) compared with a loss of $1.1 billion ($7.00 per share) in 2008. [An earlier version said that for the year, the company posted a narrower loss of $417,147 ($2.45 per share) compared with $1,109,085 ($7.00 per share) in 2008.]

-- Alejandro Lazo