Company: LEN
Filing Date: 2025-01-23
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-002404
Chunk: 140

Company: LENNAR CORP /NEW/
Filing Date: 2025-01-23
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 140
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 the sales miss that we had in the fourth quarter. Of course, the catch-up in sales pace comes at a cost, and that cost is impacting our results of operations and placing additional pressure on margin in the first quarter of 2025. We have been able to solve the community count shortfalls of the past and ended the year with 1,447 communities, which was 15% higher than the prior year. Our community count positions us to drive the volume we expect at lower absorption rates as we enter 2025. We expect lower absorption rates to put less stress on our margin over time.

The other core part of our operating strategy is our migration from a company with a large inventory of undeveloped and partially developed land to a land-light model where we purchase land on a just-in-time basis. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we had land purchases of $2.1 billion, but 80% of these were finished homesites on which vertical construction can soon begin. This lowers our asset base and our risk profile and will continue to be an intense focus for us.

The last major step to complete our land-light strategy will be the spin-off of Millrose Properties, Inc., to which we expect to transfer approximately $5 billion to $6 billion of undeveloped and partially developed land, subject to option agreements to repurchase the land as it is developed into finished homesites, and approximately $1 billion in cash. Because Millrose, unlike investor-financed land banking funds, is designed to be able to reinvest proceeds of homesite purchases in new land acquisition and development arrangements, we expect it to be a long-term, reliable source of land acquisition and development financing for Lennar and other homebuilders. As previously disclosed in Millrose’s registration statement on Form S-11, in connection with the Millrose Spin-Off, we are coordinating a post-spin off transaction with Millrose, which has already been approved by the current Millrose Board of Directors and which we expect will be ratified by the independent Millrose Board of Directors that will be appointed immediately prior to the distribution, in connection with our pending acquisition of Rausch Coleman Homes, a residential homebuilder based in Fayetteville, Arkansas (“Rausch Coleman”). The acquisition of Rausch Coleman will result in our expanding into new and desirable markets in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri, while growing our existing operations in Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Florida. In this pending acquisition, Lennar will acquire the work-in-process inventory and