Construction activity is withering, a dreadful development for the industry but one that is reducinginventory and sowing the seeds for an eventual recovery of home prices.
Calibrating your business to respond instantly to changing consumer tastes, rapidly delivering products to fill immediate needs, simultaneously serving the market better while reducinginventory carrying costs, is an extremely compelling business case.
Nevertheless, "we give them good marks for proactively reducing their inventory beginning last April, " says analyst Sean Jones at Moody's Investors Service.