LGI Homes Q2 2026 Earnings Call - Management Raises Full-Year ASP and Margin Guidance as Backlog Swells 61%

Conference Call Operator: Welcome to the LGI Homes second quarter 2026 conference call. Today’s call is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the company’s website at www.lgihomes.com. After management’s prepared comments, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. At this time, I’ll turn the call over to Josh Fattor, Executive Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets.

Josh Fattor, Executive Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets, LGI Homes: Thanks. Good afternoon. I’ll remind listeners that this call contains forward-looking statements, including management’s views on the company’s business strategy, outlook, plans, objectives, and guidance for future periods. Such statements reflect management’s current expectations and involve assumptions and estimates that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause those expectations to prove to be incorrect. You should review our filings with the SEC for a discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ from those presented today. All forward-looking statements must be considered in light of those related risks, and you shouldn’t place undue reliance on such statements, which reflect management’s current viewpoints that are not guarantees of future performance. On this call, we’ll discuss non-GAAP financial measures that are not intended to be considered in isolation or as substitutes for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.

Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP can be found in the press release we issued this morning and on our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30th, 2026 that will be filed with the SEC today. This filing will be accessible on the SEC’s website and on the investor relations section of our website. I’m joined today by Eric Lipar, LGI Homes’ Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, and Charles Merdian, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. I’ll now turn the call over to Eric.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Thanks, Josh. Good afternoon. Welcome to our earnings call. During the second quarter, our team delivered strong results while continuing to navigate a dynamic operating environment. We delivered a total of 1,440 homes during the quarter, an increase of 9% over the prior year. Of this total, 1,365 homes contributed directly to homebuilding revenue of $502 million, an increase of 4% compared to the prior year. The additional 75 closings were currently or previously leased homes, the gains from which were reflected in other income. Year-to-date, we have delivered a total of 2,356 homes, an increase of 2% over the same period last year, leaving us well-positioned to achieve our full-year closing guidance. Our average selling price for new homes increased to over $367,000, while we continue to support affordability through targeted price discounts on older inventory and financing incentives.

We ended the quarter with 151 active communities, already achieving the low end of our full-year guidance range just six months into the year and representing an increase of 3.4% from a year ago. We are beginning to see some improvement in the land market, with a broader set of opportunities becoming available and transaction economics improving. We are finding more deals where pricing and terms align with our disciplined underwriting standards, particularly as new projects are brought to market later in the development process. This provides greater certainty around cost and demand assumptions, enabling us to underwrite using today’s market conditions and more readily achieve risk-adjusted returns. Beyond 2026, our development pipeline positions us well for additional community openings in 2027 and continued community count growth. As we continue to grow our community count, we’ve invested in the capabilities of our organization.

We’ve strengthened sales leadership, expanded leadership development initiatives, and continued refining our product along with the systems and processes that support our sales organization. We believe these capabilities will build upon our proven ability to deliver exceptional customer experience and high-quality homes, which together contribute to the strong customer satisfaction and low warranty costs that are hallmarks of the LGI Homes brand. During the quarter, we averaged 3.2 total closings per community per month. Our strongest performing markets on a closings per community basis were Atlanta at 5.0, Southern California at 4.7, Charlotte at 4.2, Las Vegas at 3.9, and Albuquerque at 3.8 closings per community per month. We delivered a homebuilding gross margin of 19.8% and an adjusted homebuilding gross margin of 23.2%, both of which were above the midpoint of the increased guidance range we provided on our last call.

Our predominantly self-developed, on-balance sheet land position remains an important advantage, supporting higher profitability and providing operational flexibility regardless of housing market conditions. Our adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $59 million, or 11.4% of total revenue, reflecting prudent cost discipline, sound decision-making, and a sustained focus on the fundamentals. Demand for new homes during the second quarter was mixed but still proved more resilient than many would have expected. We ended the quarter with 1,298 homes of backlog, up 61% compared to the prior year. The increase reflects both continued interest in homeownership and a longer buying process as customers navigate affordability challenges and financing qualification requirements. In addition to delivering growth and solid profitability, we continue to strengthen our balance sheet. During the quarter, we paid down approximately $130 million on our credit facility, reducing our leverage ratio by 220 basis points to 42.6%.

This progress was driven by disciplined capital allocation, thoughtful management of our development investments, strategic balance sheet initiatives, and continued success monetizing non-core and aged inventory, positioning us to capitalize on opportunities as market conditions improve. As we look ahead, we believe our strong balance sheet, liquidity, and operating platform position us well to evaluate opportunities in an increasingly active M&A environment. Our focus continues to be on smaller strategic acquisitions that can enhance our existing platform and strengthen our position in attractive markets. Consistent with our approach to capital allocation, we remain focused on opportunities that are strategically aligned, culturally compatible, financially accretive, and capable of creating long-term shareholder value. Last week, members of our board had the opportunity to visit communities within our Charlotte operation and see firsthand the exceptional work being done by the team.

Charlotte continues to be one of our top-performing markets, driven by the team’s relentless focus on execution, customer service, and operational excellence. Their impact on our overall success has been significant, and I want to congratulate and thank everyone in the Carolinas for their hospitality and continued commitment to delivering best-in-class results. Finally, on July 9th, LGI Homes common stock was listed and began trading on Nasdaq Texas. LGI Homes was founded in Texas, we’re headquartered here in The Woodlands, and many of the families we’ve helped become homeowners call this state home. We’re pleased to be one of the early companies on this new exchange and believe it’s a good reflection of our ongoing commitment to our home state. I’ll invite Charles to provide additional details on our financial results.

Charles Merdian, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, LGI Homes: Thank you, Eric, and good afternoon. Total revenue in the second quarter was $516 million, including $501.5 million of homebuilding revenue generated from 1,365 new home closings and $14.5 million of revenue from the sale of land and lots and income from leasing operations. Of the 1,365 new home closings delivered during the quarter, 295 or 21.6% were through our wholesale channel, compared to 17.9% during the same period last year. Our homebuilding gross margin of 19.8% and adjusted homebuilding gross margin of 23.2% each exceeded the midpoint of the increased guidance range provided on our last call. Adjusted homebuilding gross margin excluded $16.5 million of capitalized interest and $544,000 related to purchase accounting. Combined selling, general, and administrative expenses totaled $72.7 million or 14.1% of total revenue, an improvement of 40 basis points year-over-year.

Selling expenses were $44.1 million or 8.6% of total revenue, compared to 8.5% in the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to higher overall spending to drive leads to our communities. General and administrative expenses were $28.6 million or 5.5% of total revenue compared to 6% in the same period last year, reflecting higher revenues and our continued focus on controlling costs, improving efficiency, and maintaining a disciplined operating structure. Other income was $7.6 million, driven primarily by the sale of 75 currently or previously leased homes. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $58.7 million, representing 11.4% of total revenue. Pre-tax net income was $36.6 million or 7.1% of total revenue. We generated net income of $27 million for the quarter, or $1.16 per basic and diluted share.

Net orders in the second quarter were 1,039 homes, a decrease of 4.8% from 1,091 homes during the same period last year, reflecting continued affordability pressures, higher mortgage rates, and elevated energy costs arising from the conflict in the Middle East. Our cancellation rate in the second quarter was 49.4% compared to 32.7% in the same period last year, driven by a wider pool of buyers needing more time to get across the finish line. We ended the quarter with 1,298 homes in backlog valued at $525.5 million, representing increases of 60.6% and 63% respectively. Turning to our land position. As of June 30th, we owned and controlled 57,406 lots, a decrease of 11.4% year-over-year and 2.7% sequentially. This marked our sixth consecutive quarter of reducing our lot position while focusing capital on markets where demand and returns support the additional investment.

Of our total lots, 50,522 or 88% were owned, and 6,884 lots or 12% were controlled. Of our owned lots, 33,775 were raw land or land under development.

19% of which were in active development and 81% were in engineering or undeveloped land. Although early stage lots represents two-thirds of our owned lot count, they require only modest investment per lot. In contrast, 26% of our $3.5 billion real estate inventory is invested in the 7% of lots that are homes in progress or completed, positioning us for near-term revenue conversion. Of the remaining 16,747 owned lots, 12,990 were finished vacant lots, and 1,858 were completed homes. During the quarter, we started 1,560 homes and ended June with 1,899 homes under construction. I’ll now turn the call over to Josh for discussion of our capital position.

Josh Fattor, Executive Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets, LGI Homes: Thank you, Charles. We ended the quarter with just under $1.6 billion of debt outstanding, including $449 million drawn on our revolver, resulting in a debt-to-capital ratio of 42.6% and a net debt-to-capital ratio of 41.6%, sequential decreases of 220 and 240 basis points respectively. Total debt declined by approximately $129 million from the prior quarter and approximately $160 million year-over-year, representing strong progress on our de-leveraging objectives. These efforts are intended to enhance flexibility and position us to act opportunistically as attractive opportunities emerge. We ended the quarter with $468 million in liquidity, including $61 million of cash on hand and $406.9 million available to borrow under our credit facility. As of June 30th, our stockholders’ equity was over $2.1 billion, and our book value per share was $91.73. At this point, I’ll turn the call back over to Eric.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Thanks, Josh. We’re pleased with our performance during the quarter and remain confident in our ability to continue navigating the current market successfully. Our focus remains on affordability, inventory management, capital allocation, and helping more families achieve the dream of home ownership as we move through the second half of the year. Customers remain highly payment sensitive, particularly in an environment where mortgage rates continue to rise. However, our backlog remains strong and buyers continue to inquire about home ownership and engage with our sales teams. After a quieter first half, we are seeing more of our wholesale partners re-enter the market in pursuit of growth opportunities. Demand for our affordable home ownership continues to support our business, and we are right on track to achieve our 2026 objectives and continue executing against our long-term growth strategy.

Pending verification of fundings, we expect to announce that we closed 425 homes in July, an increase of 11.5% over last year, bringing our year-to-date closings to 2,781. As a result, we are well positioned to achieve the full-year guidance metrics we provided on our last call, including annual closings between 4,600 and 5,400 homes in 150 to 160 active communities by year-end. Our ability to maintain price year-to-date and current visibility into our backlog, we are raising the guidance range for our average selling price by $5,000 at both the low and high end of our prior range, resulting in full-year ASP range between $360,000 and $370,000. We continue to expect SG&A as a percentage of revenue between 15% and 16%.

Given our margin outperformance and visibility into the strong margins in our backlog, we are raising full-year homebuilding gross margin and adjusted homebuilding gross margin by 50 basis points at both the low and high end of our prior ranges. We now expect homebuilding gross margin will range between 19% and 21%, and adjusted homebuilding gross margin between 22.5% and 24.5%. This is our second consecutive quarter of raising gross margin guidance. Our teams continue to execute at a high level, delivering strong results across the business. We are pleased with our results to date and remain confident in our ability to achieve all of our full-year expectations. We will now open the call for questions.

Conference Call Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press

Trevor Allinson, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Eric, I wanted to follow up on the raise to gross margin guidance for a second quarter in a row. That is despite mortgage rates moving higher through the quarter. Can you talk about what is driving the better performance than you expected? Is it a less significant reaction from customers to the higher rates, or what is going better than what you thought that is leading to the higher gross margins to what you originally anticipated?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Trevor, thanks. I think starting with we do a lot of land development, so we got some land development profits in that gross margin. There’s a mix component to that as well. There’s a conservative component, not knowing exactly where incentives are going to be at the beginning of the year, so our guidance was conservative. As we work through our older inventory, the new homes that we’re closing have a higher gross margin. That’s been helpful, and sequentially, the team across the country has done a great job of getting rid of older inventory. Our house costs are down year-over-year, which is contributing to that as well. It’s really a combination of a lot of factors, but we’re pleased with our progress even though gross margins are still down year-over-year. We’re still incentivizing our customers.

We’re still dealing with a higher rate environment. Really good progress.

Trevor Allinson, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Thanks for that, Eric. Then second one’s on the demand trends through the quarter. I think you called them mixed. Can you talk about kind of sequentially how that performed relative to normal seasonality, given the move higher in rates? Then similar comment or question on July. How has July trended so far relative to normal seasonality? Thanks.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: We’re definitely dealing with some normal seasonality in the summer months here in July. Definitely the higher rates. I think in general, the higher rates and the negative news cycle on the higher gas prices are always going to be a headwind to sales. I think we’re seeing some of that in July. Also, our July closing number that we will report tomorrow, which is really focused on June and Q2 sales. We were happy with reporting approximately 425 closings. We’ll also report an increase of another community. We’re going to report 152 active communities, and when we report tomorrow night. We believe that’s the highest active community count in company history.

Trevor Allinson, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Thanks for all the color, good luck moving forward.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Thanks, Robert. Appreciate it.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: Hello.

Conference Call Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press one one on your touchtone telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question will come from the line of Alex Rygiel of Texas Capital Securities. Your line is open.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: Good morning, gentlemen. Nice quarter.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Thank you.

Thank you.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: Could you talk a little bit more about the new communities that came online during the quarter and even subsequently, and how they may impact ASPs and gross margin? It seems like, or it looks like quite a few of these might have come online at the later portion of the quarter. Is that correct?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: That is correct, Eric. Excuse me, Alex. This is Eric. We just opened up a new community, the ones we just added. California, we’re having a lot of success in California. I know we added a few new communities in the Western U.S. will influence ASP. We just added one, a new project in Dallas, just becoming active community. We’ve got a real community that’s off to a fast start in Seattle that’s going to be really ramping up closings over the next six months that will influence ASP. There’s certainly a mixed component to our raising ASP guidance. We’ve also seen a component of mix within the floor plans of the community, even though we are dealing with affordability-challenged markets. A lot of the customers that qualify today are not necessarily picking the smallest homes in the community.

They want what they want. If they qualify, they sometimes pick the larger square footages in the community. There’s a mix intra community as well.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: That sounds great. Regarding the closings in July, which looks pretty good, how does that compare to what you might have expected a few months ago? Do you feel it’s a little bit better, in line, or a little bit lighter?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: I think in line to slightly better. Alex, I think we always track everything to our annual guidance of 4,600 to 5,400 homes. I’d say it’s right on track to continue on our pace to hit our margin guidance and closing guidance for the year.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: That’s great. One last question. You referenced land looking to be a little bit more attractive. How should we think about how that improved pricing flows through your income statement? Sort of how far down the road would we anticipate to see that play out?

Charles Merdian, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, LGI Homes: Yeah. This is Charles. I think most of what we’re still seeing are land deals, although they’re further along in the entitlement process. Our development timelines are still running at about 12-18 months. It would be into 2028. Most of these are communities that we’re looking at that will affect our community count further out. Not as much in the near term, because most of those projects are currently on balance sheet. We’ve developed those first initial sections. What’s coming through in the short run are projects that we had purchased several years ago.

Alex Rygiel, Analyst, Texas Capital Securities: Very helpful. Thank you.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: You bet. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Our next question will be coming from the line of Jay McCanless of Citizens Bank. Jay, your line is open.

Jay McCanless, Analyst, Citizens Bank: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Great progress on getting the finished spec count down. I guess, could we talk about the comment, I can’t remember who made it, but about demand from wholesale getting better, especially now that the Road to Housing Act is finished. Is it turning into tangible contracts yet? Also, B, is this an opportunity for LGI to offload some of the older specs that you referenced earlier, Eric?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Yes and yes, Jay. I think it’s not necessarily turning into orders yet, but for most of the year, until the Road to Housing Act was finalized, there was just uncertainty, and what uncertainty leads to is just pencils down and not really a lot of engagement from our wholesale partners. Now that the Road to Housing Act is finalized, and which was positive, we have seen the investors pick up their pencil. They’re engaged, they’re talking to our teams, not necessarily resulting in orders yet. We are talking to them, and it’s very much a positive for our business, not only to finish out the year, whether it’s older inventory or also making agreements to look at contracts and delivering houses going into next year as well.

Jay McCanless, Analyst, Citizens Bank: Got it. The next one I had, you said that you’re seeing at the beginning of the prepared comments, that you’re seeing better opportunities for land deals, maybe a little more rational in terms of pricing. I think last quarter you guys talked about more finished lot deals that you were able to see. Is that what’s happened again this quarter, is that there’s more finished lots available out there and stuff that y’all can turn a little bit quicker? Is that what happened this quarter?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Yes. I mean, Charles commented on it. They’re most predominantly land still, and we’re comfortable with developing land. We are starting to see some finished lot opportunities that we can turn quicker. Even the land parcels we’re seeing are smaller. They’re further in the development cycle. The pricing is more reflective of It’s a challenging market right now for developers to capture development profit, especially if they’ve bought the project over the last few years. The finished lot opportunities are very accretive, because you can buy finished lots or partially developed lots. There’s no reason to develop them to end up at the same price, I guess is my point. The developer profit is challenging right now.

we are seeing those opportunities, the acquisitions teams are all doing a great job and letting everyone know that we are open for business and looking at growing our community count.

Jay McCanless, Analyst, Citizens Bank: That’s great. Then on the flip side of that, on some of the older land parcels that LGI is trying to sell, what type of investor interest or interest level have you seen with those types of sales?

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: I think the opportunity for us is really on the finished lots. We’re very comfortable with our older land parcels, the ones we bought, our basis is very strong. I think just like us, the opportunity to sell lots is really the finished lot opportunities, where we have a section that maybe is too large for the current absorption pace, and we can sell some finished lots to another builder that’d be a great partner, and then reinvest those dollars in an additional community count somewhere else.

Jay McCanless, Analyst, Citizens Bank: That’s great. Thanks, Tim.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Thanks, Jay.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. At this time, I’m showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back to Eric for closing remarks.

Eric Lipar, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, LGI Homes: Yeah. Thanks, everyone, for participating on today’s call and your continued interest in LGI Homes. Have a great day.

Conference Call Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.