| **Exhibit 31.2: Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant  to Section 302** |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ** **                                                                              | **of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002** |

 

Certificationof Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Rule 13a – 14(a)Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

I,Gordon A. Milne, certify that:

1.                                       Ihave reviewed this Annual Report on Form 10-K of The Ryland Group, Inc. (the “Company”);

2.                                       Basedon my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of amaterial fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statementsmade, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, notmisleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3.                                       Basedon my knowledge, the financialstatements, and other financialinformation included in this report, fairly present in all material respectsthe financialcondition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company as of, and for,the periods presented in this report;

4.                                       TheCompany’s other certifying officerand I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls andprocedures (as definedin Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financialreporting (as definedin Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the Company and have:

a)                                      Designedsuch disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls andprocedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that materialinformation relating to the Company, including its consolidated subsidiaries,is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during theperiod in which this report is being prepared;

b)                                     Designedsuch internal control over financialreporting, or caused such internal control over financialreporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assuranceregarding the reliability of financialreporting and the preparation of financialstatements for external purposes in accordance with generally acceptedaccounting principles;

c)                                      Evaluatedthe effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures andpresented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of thedisclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by thisreport based on such evaluation; and

d)                                     Disclosedin this report any change in the Company’s internal control over financialreporting that occurred during the Company’s most recent fiscalquarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materiallyaffect, the Company’s internal control over financialreporting; and

5.                                       TheCompany’s other certifying officerand I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal controlover financialreporting, to the Company’s auditors and the audit committee of the Company’sboard of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a)                                      Allsignificantdeficienciesand material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financialreporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the Company’s abilityto record, process, summarize and report financialinformation; and

b)                                     Anyfraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees whohave a significantrole in the Company’s internal control over financialreporting.

 
| *Date: February 28, 2007* | ***/s/ Gordon A. Milne***      |
|---------------------------|--------------------------------|
|                      | Gordon A. Milne                |
|                      | *Executive Vice President and* |
|                      | *Chief Financial Of**fi**cer*  |

 

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