Company: LEN
Filing Date: 2025-01-23
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-002404
Chunk: 99

Company: LENNAR CORP /NEW/
Filing Date: 2025-01-23
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 99
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 the incidence of large wildfires in California has substantially increased in recent years and the risk of future wildfires is expected to increase. The housing markets in areas affected by California’s recent wildfires have been adversely affected by increased insurance costs and difficulties in obtaining homeowners’ insurance, which we expect to be exacerbated by the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

If our homebuyers are not able to obtain suitable financing, that would reduce demand for our homes and our home sales revenues.

Most purchasers of our homes obtain mortgage loans to finance a substantial portion of the purchase price of the homes they purchase. While the majority of our homebuyers obtain their mortgage financing from our Financial Services segment, others obtain mortgage financing from banks and other independent lenders. Disruptions in the mortgage markets or increased government regulation could adversely affect the ability of potential homebuyers to obtain financing for home purchases, making it difficult for them to purchase our homes. Among other things, changes made by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae and FHA/VA in recent years to sponsored mortgage programs, as well as changes made in recent years by private mortgage insurance companies, have reduced the ability of a number of potential homebuyers to qualify for mortgages. Principal among these are higher income requirements, larger required down payments, increased reserves and higher required credit scores. In addition, there has been uncertainty regarding the future of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, including proposals that they reduce or terminate their role as the principal sources of liquidity in the secondary market for mortgage loans. It is not clear how, if Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae were to curtail their secondary market mortgage loan purchases, the liquidity they provide would be replaced. There is a substantial possibility that substituting an alternate source of liquidity would increase mortgage interest rates, which would increase the buyers' effective costs of paying for the homes we sell, and therefore could reduce demand for our homes and adversely affect our results of operations.

Changes in tax laws could increase the cost of owning a home.

Currently, there are significant income tax benefits from owning a home, including deductibility of all or some interest on mortgage loans incurred to finance home purchases and the deductibility of property taxes, subject to certain limits. If federal or state tax laws are changed to eliminate or reduce any of these income tax benefits or if personal income or property tax rates were to increase, the after-tax cost of homeownership could measurably increase and diminish consumer interest in buying a home, with a resulting adverse effect on our revenues.

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Our Financial