Home sales revenues of $2.23 billion were up 37% compared to the prior year period.
Adjusted gross margin of 25.6% was up 170 basis points compared to last year.
Both our pre-tax income of $303.4 million and our earnings per share of $1.87 more than doubled compared to last year.
We signed 3,154 net contracts for approximately $2.98 billion, up 11% in units and 35% in dollars compared to the prior year period.
In addition, our contracts per community at 10.2 were 20% above last year and our highest third quarter ever.
Our average selling price in the quarter was approximately $945,000, up $70,000 compared to the second quarter and up $163,000 year-over-year.
We've averaged over 300 non-binding deposits per week in the first three weeks of August, a pace that is consistent with May through July.
Not surprisingly, our deposits were down 15% compared to the same three weeks last August when demand surged following the lifting of COVID lockdowns.
However, compared to the same three weeks of August 2019, deposits were up 29%.
From August 1 to September 15, 2020, the first half of our fiscal 2020 fourth quarter, net signed contracts were up 110% in units, and for the full quarter, they were up 68%.
In light of the pricing embedded in our backlog and our focus on managing costs, we are confident that our gross margin in fiscal 2022 will significantly exceed the 25.6% margin we project for fiscal 2021's fourth quarter.
Backlog was $9.4 billion on 10,661 units, up 55% in dollars and 40% in units compared to last year.
We reaffirm these expectations, including a return on beginning equity for fiscal 2022, well above 20%.
At quarter-end, we owned or optioned approximately 79,500 lots.
Our option lots represented 53% of our total lots controlled at third quarter end compared to 49% one quarter earlier and 43% one year ago.
We have already made significant progress in moving toward the 60% optioned and 40% owned goal we set last quarter.
At quarter-end, we were selling from 314 active communities.
We continue to project growth to 340 communities at fiscal year-end and an additional 10% community count growth in fiscal 2022.
Affordable luxury comprised 44% of deliveries in the quarter ended July 31, up from 40% last year.
First-time homebuyers who are the primary buyers in our affordable luxury segment accounted for 29% of our deliveries this quarter compared to 27% one year ago.
With about 550 owned and controlled lots, this acquisition allows us to quickly expand our affordable luxury offerings in the Las Vegas market.
Yesterday, we announced a new strategic partnership with Equity Residential, a world-class S&P 500 company focused on luxury apartment rentals to jointly acquire and develop sites into new rental apartment communities in key US markets of metro Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Orange County, Seattle and Dallas.
Over the next three years, we expect Equity Residential to invest 75% of the equity for each selected project with our apartment living unit investing the remaining 25%.
We expect these projects to be financed with approximately 60% leverage.
We are targeting an initial minimum co-investment of approximately $750 million in combined equity between the companies or nearly $1.9 billion in total capacity, assuming the 60% leverage.
The total anticipated cost of these three projects is approximately $242 million.
We delivered 2,597 homes at an average price of approximately $860,000, generating third quarter homebuilding revenue of $2.23 billion.
Deliveries were up 28% in units and 37% in dollars compared to one year ago.
Our third quarter pre-tax income was $303.4 million compared to $151.9 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Net income was $234.9 million or $1.87 per share diluted compared to $114.8 million and $0.90 per share diluted one year ago.
Third quarter adjusted gross margin was 25.6% of revenues compared to 23.9% in fiscal year 2020's third quarter and 80 basis points better than projected.
SG&A as a percentage of home sales revenue in the quarter was 10.5% or 110 basis points better than our guidance.
Joint venture, land sales and other income was $29 million in the third quarter compared to $3.6 million in the same quarter last year.
Our projection was approximately $20 million.
We ended our third quarter with approximately $2.7 billion of liquidity, including $946 million of cash and approximately $1.8 billion available under our $1.9 billion revolving bank credit facility.
In the third quarter, we invested approximately $200 million in land acquisition and another $230 million in land development.
We expect to generate $750 million in cash from operating activities in fiscal year 2021.
We will continue to use our cash to invest in the growth of our business, return cash to shareholders and further reduce our debt, including retiring $410 million of our 5.875% public notes that are due in February 2022.
Our net debt to capital ratio stands at 33.1 at third quarter end, and we expect it to drop to the mid to upper 20% range at fiscal year-end.
In our third quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.7 million shares at an average price of $57.66 for an aggregate amount of $95.4 million.
In April we increased our quarterly dividend by 55% to $0.17 per share.
Due to the production delays impacting our industry, we now we expect full year deliveries of approximately 10,100 homes compared to the midpoint of our previous guide of 10,300 homes.
These 200 deliveries, which are sold and have substantial deposits from our buyers, are now projected to settle in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
So we now project our fourth quarter deliveries to be approximately 3,450 homes.
We estimate an average delivered price for the fourth quarter of approximately $840,000 per home and approximately $830,000 for the full year.
This is an increase of $15,000 per home compared to our previous fiscal year guidance.
We are projecting a fourth quarter adjusted gross margin of 25.6% of revenues and a full fiscal year 2021 adjusted gross margin of 24.9%.
This is an increase of 30 basis points compared to our previous full year guidance.
Based on the composition of our backlog, we are confident that our full year fiscal 2022 adjusted gross margin will significantly exceed the 25.6% margin we are projecting for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
We expect interest and cost of sales to be approximately 2.3% of home sales revenues for the fourth quarter and full year.
This full year guidance is 20 basis points better year-over-year and reflects the impact of debt reductions made earlier this year.
We expect SG&A as a percentage of revenue to be approximately 9.8% in the fourth quarter and 11.3% for the full year.
This full year guidance is 50 basis points better than previously projected.
As Doug mentioned, we expect community count to be 340 at fiscal year-end, with 10% growth from there by fiscal year 2022.
Our full year guidance for fiscal year 2021 other income, income from unconsolidated entities and land sales is now $140 million for the full year, with approximately $40 million projected for the fourth quarter.
This is a $30 million increase from our projection last quarter and is driven by more sales projected in our apartment living division.
Our third quarter tax rate was 22.6%, which includes approximately $12 million in energy tax credits.
Our fourth quarter effective tax rate is projected to be approximately 26% and our full year guidance is 24.6%, 90 basis points better than our previous full year guidance.
Taking this all into account, we have increased our projected return on beginning equity for fiscal year 2021 to 15.9%, over 700 basis points better than fiscal 2020.
As Doug noted, we expected to exceed 20% in fiscal year 2022 and we believe our capital efficiency initiatives and the structural changes in our land acquisition strategy will keep it above 20% long-term.

Summary:
Both our pre-tax income of $303.4 million and our earnings per share of $1.87 more than doubled compared to last year.
Backlog was $9.4 billion on 10,661 units, up 55% in dollars and 40% in units compared to last year.
Net income was $234.9 million or $1.87 per share diluted compared to $114.8 million and $0.90 per share diluted one year ago.
So we now project our fourth quarter deliveries to be approximately 3,450 homes.