Builders Face Up to Drywall Liabilities

Here is the latest news regarding Chinese Drywall which has been found in hundreds of homes and condos in Southwest Florida.  It is good to see the publicly traded builders stepping up and taking responsibility for this problem.

Publicly traded builders are being grilled by analysts about their liability in using defective Chinese drywall. Miami-based Lennar Corp. has announced that it built about 400 homes between 2006 and 2007 using the foul-smelling, corrosive material. It has set aside $40 million to make repairs and expects to get about half that back in insurance. Another Florida-based developer WCI communities, which is set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will face an estimated 160 potential cases. D.R. Horton Inc., Beazer Homes USA Inc., and Ryland Group Inc., all have announced very small numbers of affected homes. Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. will report its third-quarter results on Wednesday and is expected to report some drywall exposure as well.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Dawn Wotapka (09/02/2009)