Toll Brothers, a luxury homebuilder, has posted a smaller loss of $40.8mn, or $0.25 per share, for its first quarter that ended January 31, 2010; this compares to a loss of $88.9mn, or $0.55 a share, a year earlier. The first quarter saw a $33.4m in pre-tax write-downs, including a $22.5m write-down on account of operating communities, $9mn on account of owned land and $1.6mm due to land for future communities. The company also reported a 129% increase in the value of its net contracts signed, and a more than 30% drop in cancellation rate, compared to the quarter a year-ago. “A year ago at this time we feared for the stability of the nation’s economic system. That worry seems to be behind us,” said chairman and CEO Robert Toll. “The housing market took several years to recover following the downturn of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. We expect this recovery to follow a similar pattern.” A temporary change in tax law allowed the company to net a $16mn tax refund under the net operating loss carry back provision. Analysts continue to be concerned about a lack of sustained revenue growth and profitability for homebuilders. “There is still not a lot of visibility as to when they will book the revenue in the contracts they’ve received,” said Merrill H. Ross, an analyst at BGB Securities.